The Leaders’ Debates Commission, which is tasked with organizing the French and English debates, has removed the Green Party from federal leaders’ debates for failing to meet participation requirements.
“Deliberately reducing the number of candidates running for strategic reasons is inconsistent with the Commission’s interpretation of party viability, which criterion (iii) was designed to measure,” the Commission said in a statement Wednesday.
“The Commission concludes that the inclusion of the leader of the Green Party of Canada in these circumstances would undermine the integrity of the debates and the interests of the voting public,” it added.
Parties must meet two of the following three criteria in order to be invited to the debates: having at least one sitting MP who’s been elected as a member of that party; having at least four per cent national support in opinion polls; and running candidates in at least 90 per cent of all ridings.
The commission invited the Greens to participate earlier this month, saying the party met both the benchmark for the number of candidates it is running and the number of MPs it has in the House.
On Tuesday, co-leader Jonathan Pedneault told CBC News that the party had pulled about 15 candidates out of the race in a “strategic decision” not to run them in ridings where the party thinks Conservatives will likely win.
Dropping 15 candidates would still keep the Greens above the 90 per cent threshold set out by the debates commission, but it means the party isn’t running candidates in more than 100 of the 343 ridings up for grabs.
Pedneault explained that his party’s current shortage of 96 candidates is in part because volunteers “faced intimidation” from constituents. The other major parties have representation in nearly all ridings.
The Elections Canada filing deadline was April 7, but parties had to submit their final slate of candidates to the federal debates commission a week earlier.
The commission said the Green Party had submitted a list of 343 names in March, but Elections Canada only lists 232 candidates running under the Green banner — meaning the party has candidates running in roughly 68 per cent of all ridings.
In deciding to drop the Greens from the debate after having first invited them, the commission explained that the criteria to have candidates in 90 per cent of federal ridings was initially satisfied when the party submitted a list of endorsed candidates a month before voting day.
“Given that debates are held well in advance of election day, parties are not required to demonstrate that those candidates have been formally nominated with Elections Canada,” the commission said.
The commission said the party’s decision to remove candidates for strategic reasons led to its decision to remove the Greens from the debate.
“Whether or not the Green Party of Canada intended to run 343 candidates, it has since made the strategic decision to reduce the number of candidates running, meaning that voters no longer have the opportunity to vote for those candidates,” the commission said.
Rod Leggett, a party spokesperson, told CBC News earlier this week that some nominees had issues with local Elections Canada employees known as returning officers.
“Elections Canada is a top-notch election management body, recognized across the globe. But at the local level the Green Party has experienced higher levels of issues than in the past,” Leggett said in an email.
The Elections Canada Act requires a candidate to gather 100 signatures from voters in their riding in order to register. Leggett said Green candidates had trouble verifying nomination signatures because some returning officers didn’t have an updated list of electors.
Elections Canada said the Green Party has been in touch with concerns over the nomination process and it’s looking into the matter. But an Elections Canada spokesperson said the list of candidates is now “final” and suggested timelines might have been an issue.
After the English federal leaders’ debate, Cross Country Checkup will ask: What was your debate highlight? Who should be Canada’s next prime minister? Leave your comment here and we may read it or call you back for our special on April 17!
