(Photo by Mariah Wilson)
August 15, 2019
Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, has been left off the initial list of federal debate participants. His exclusion by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission is an abhorrent misstep that undermines the mandate of the Commission.
Two of three criteria must be met for inclusion in the debates. First, the party is represented in the House of Commons by a Member of Parliament who was elected as a member of that party. Second is that the party intends to run candidates in at least 90 per cent of electoral districts in the election in question and the third is that the “the party’s candidates for the most recent general election received at that election at least 4 per cent of the number of valid votes cast” or “based on the recent political context, public opinion polls and previous general election results,” the Commissioner considers that candidates endorsed by the party have a legitimate chance to be elected in the upcoming general election.
The first criterion seems as though it was designed solely to exclude Bernier. As the Member of Parliament for the riding of Beauce, Bernier previously represented his constituents under the Conservative banner. After narrowly losing the party’s leadership race to Andrew Scheer, Bernier formed his own party — the PPC. While Bernier is a member of the House of Commons, he was not elected as a member of the PPC because the party formed post-election, meaning that he fails to satisfy the requirement.
The five parties invited to the debate include the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Bloc Québécois.
Currently, the Green Party is running 241 candidates, the New Democratic Party has 149 confirmed, the Liberal Party has registered 242 and the Bloc Québécois are fielding 37. In the lead is the Conservative Party of Canada with 331 confirmed candidates, followed closely by the People’s Party with 312.
The infographic on the Government of Canada website to describe the creation of the Commission claims that “leaders’ debates make an essential contribution to the health of Canadian democracy.” How healthy is Canadian democracy really, when we’re leaving out a party with 312 candidates so far?
With less than 70 days until the election and the writ set to drop in the first two weeks of September, the NDP have more ridings yet to nominate than they have named and the Liberals just triggered their “national electoral emergency” clause, which allows them to bypass their own nomination rules to ensure there are candidates in key ridings. It’s not as though Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau should have been shocked that there was an election coming up. Bernier has stated his intention to run a candidate in every riding, a feat that, considering what he has managed to do since the party’s inception, seems very manageable.
Read More HERE
