The Green Party says the debates commission might have misinterpreted its own rules regarding candidate nomination, potentially preventing Greens from participating in a series of debates on Wednesday, April 16 (in French) and Thursday, April 17 (in English).
On Wednesday morning, the Leaders' Debates Commission to Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault, citing the party's failure to meet the participation criteria.
The party claims the commission initially confirmed they met the required criteria less than a week ago, only to later change its interpretation.
The commission's criteria require parties to field candidates in at least 90 per cent of ridings across Canada to qualify for debate participation, and determined the Green Party ultimately failed to place the required number of candidates on ballots nationwide.
Speaking at a press conference in Sidney, Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May says the crux of the issue lies in how the commission is interpreting the rules concerning the number of nominated candidates.
The Green Party asserts they nominated a "full slate" of candidates before encountering unforeseen challenges in securing required signatures.
"The way it's phrased around the number of candidates is how many candidates are nominated," May said. "We had a full slate nominated."
The party highlights that the process of collecting nominations was significantly hampered this year.
"We met a different climate going door to door or standing in a shopping mall," May explained. "The process of getting signatures鈥as very, very different this time around for many parties. It was very hard to collect signatures in a way that I've never seen before. Levels of skepticism at giving your information to somebody on a form we've never encountered before, but worse than that was bullying, harassment and threats of violence."
In a statement released Wednesday (April 16), the commission explained, "Because the party intentionally reduced the number of candidates it was running for strategic reasons, it no longer meets the intention of the rules that were set."
鈥淪how us any evidence,鈥� May said. 鈥淔ind one candidate where they were removed for strategic reasons by the party. They'll never find any evidence because it didn't happen.鈥�
Despite initially submitting a list of 343 candidates, as required, the commission ultimately concluded that voters would not have the opportunity to choose from that many Green candidates across the country on election day.
May confirmed that as a national team, neither the national campaign manager, herself, nor Pedneault made any decision to withdraw candidates.
The Green Party believes the Debates Commission鈥檚 altered interpretation unfairly penalizes them for circumstances beyond their control and violates the commission's own stated rules.
They are urging the commission to reconsider its position and ensure Greens are included in upcoming debates.
"We have the right to be on that stage tonight," May added.
"On behalf of all Greens across the country, all of our volunteers and all our candidates, I ask the commission to be fair, reconsider. You have our letter in front of you, and it's very clear that a mistake was made within the commission. Please reverse your last-minute, hasty and incorrect decision."
The Green Party sent a letter early Wednesday to the Leaders' Debates Commission explaining why they made a mistake and appealing for the body to reverse their decision.
