OTTAWA, ON, April 16, 2025 /CNW/ - The Leaders' Debates Commission has decided to rescind the invitation to the Green Party of Canada to participate in the two leaders' debates for the 45th general election.
The Commission's mandate is to design debates that are "effective, informative, and compelling and benefit from the participation of the leaders who have the greatest likelihood of becoming Prime Minister or whose political parties have the greatest likelihood of winning seats in Parliament." In fulfilling its mandate, the Commission must be "guided by the pursuit of the public interest and by the principles of independence, impartiality, credibility, democratic citizenship, civic education, inclusion and cost effectiveness."
The Commission was guided by these principles in setting the participation criteria for the 45th general election, including criterion (iii): "28 days before the date of the general election, the party has endorsed candidates in at least 90% of federal ridings."
As explained by the Commission in its participation criteria decision, this criterion was selected as a simple, clear and objective criterion to measure party viability, as it indicates that the party has the "necessary organizational strength to wage a political campaign and offer voters a viable electoral option nation-wide."
The Commission stated that this criterion would be satisfied by a list of endorsed candidates submitted no later than 28 days before the general election, acknowledging that, "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." Participation must be determined sufficiently in advance to ensure that the debates producer has sufficient time to produce a debate of high quality, and that the political parties can properly prepare for the debates in order to ensure they are informative for Canadians.
However, the Commission concludes that because the Green Party of Canada has intentionally reduced the number of candidates running in the election for strategic reasons, it no longer meets the intention of the participation criteria to justify inclusion in the leaders' debates. 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. 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 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.
The full decision is available here.
About the Leaders' Debates Commission
The Leaders' Debates Commission is an independent and impartial public body mandated is to organize two leaders' debates in each federal general election that are in the public interest, one in each official language, while paying special attention to Canada's Indigenous languages. The Commission is responsible for setting out production, promotion, and distribution requirements for the leaders' debates, while respecting journalistic independence for the content of the debates as well as setting participation criteria for the debates.
Website: www.debates-debats.ca
X: @debates_can / @debats_can
SOURCE Leaders' Debates Commission
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