Greens qualify to attend federal leaders' debates | CBC News (2025)

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 7:20 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

The Green Party will participate intwo federal leaders' debates this month after meeting the minimum requirements to attend, organizerssaid Tuesday.

The Leaders' Debates Commission said the party met two of the three required criteria to have its leader invited to both the Frenchdebate onApril 16 and the English debate April17.

Both debates will take place at 7 p.m. in Montreal.

It hadn't been certain whether the Greens would qualify, because the threshold to attend was higher this year than in 2021. Back then, parties only had to meet one of three criteria.

This year, it was two of the following three:

• The leader's party had to be represented in the House of Commons by at least one MP before dissolution.
• The leader's party must be polling at least four per cent 28 days before voting day, based on themost recent results of "leading national public opinion polling organizations."
• The party must have candidates nominated in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings across Canada, also 28 days before the federal election.

The Greens made the cut for the first and third criteria. The party has two co-leaders: Jonathan Pedneault and Elizabeth May, but it isPedneaulttaking on "singular leadership roles" when required during the campaign.

That includes carrying the party banner in the leadership debates. The party was polling at 2.4 per cent as of Tuesday and would lose seats if an election were held today, according to CBC's Poll Tracker.

The Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécoisall qualified for both debates.

The People's Party of Canada did not, as it hasno elected MPs and was not polling high enough by the consortium's deadline.

WATCH | Political scientist explains whether Carney will pay for skipping 3rd debate:

Last month, Quebec broadcaster TVA cancelled what would have been a third televiseddebate, known as Face-à-Face, after Liberal Leader Mark Carney declined to attend the French-language event— a decision sharply criticized by his opponents.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said it was "insulting to Quebecers."

TVA said in a statement that it was "forced to cancel … due to the Liberal Party of Canada's refusal to participate" and that the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois had all said they were ready to pay the $75,000 fee to take part.

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