On August 12th, the Leaders’ Debates Commission informed People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier that he would not be invited to the federal party leaders’ debates, at least tentatively. The Commission established that the Peoples Party could not meet at least two of the three criteria for debate inclusion.
This will be the first federal election where inclusion to the leaders’ debates will be subject to a rulesbased process, and the governing Liberal Party deserves credit for this progress. One of the criteria is that a party must have previously elected an MP under its banner.
But it seems suspicious the Bloc Quebecois will be allowed into the debates, which runs candidates only in Quebec, whereas a party that will run candidates nation-wide will be excluded. This discrepancy is compounded by the fact that the Bloc was allowed into the 1993 debates at a time when it had never won a seat previously.
In previous elections the Green Party fought against its exclusion from the leaders’ debates. Now another party that has hundreds of electoral district associations is on the sharp end of the stick. The exclusion was wrong then and is wrong now too. Those who agree can petition at www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/get_max_in_the_debates.
Stefan Klietsch
Renfrew
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