By Canadian Press

People’s Party of Canada, Maverick Party left out of federal leaders’ debate

Aug 21, 2021 | 4:19 PM

Neither People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier nor the head of a party advocating for the separation of the western provinces from the rest of Canada will be participating in leaders debates during the current federal election campaign. 

The Leaders’ Debates Commission said in a news release Saturday invitations have gone out to the leaders of five main federal parties: the Liberals, the Conservatives, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party.

The commission established three criteria by which a party could qualify for an invitation, and the commission said neither the People’s Party of Canada nor the Maverick Party, formerly known as Wexit Canada, met the conditions.

Parties had to have at least one representative elected to Parliament, or have won at least four per cent of the vote in the last federal election, the commission said in a release. Alternatively, a leader would have been invited if polls showed their party was backed by at least four per cent of voters five days after the election was called.

Approved polls showed an average of 3.2 per cent support for the People’s Party and 0.7 per cent for the Maverick Party, the commission said.

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Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, took umbrage with his exclusion from the debates.

“I do not blame the Commission, whose criteria were clear and objective,” Bernier said in a news release Saturday. “Rather I blame the political establishment cartel, which refuses to debate the crucial issues we raise and has done everything to marginalize us since the founding of the PPC.”

Bernier’s participation in the 2019 debates was controversial after links emerged between white supremacists and his party. He lost his seat in the Beauce, Que., district in that election, and no other member of the People’s Party was elected.  

The upcoming vote on Sept. 20 is the Maverick Party’s first election.

Jay Hill, leader of the Maverick Party and former Conservative member of Parliament for the British Columbia riding of Prince George-Peace River, told The Canadian Press he has no qualms with Leaders’ Debates Commission’s decision to exclude him. 

“I don’t see anything unreasonable about the three criteria the committee put in place, and we don’t qualify as a new party, but we definitely will in the next election,” he said in an interview Saturday. 

“If Max has a problem with it, he should have probably worked harder to save his own seat last time,” he added.

The French and English-language leaders debates are scheduled to take place at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, respectively.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on Aug. 21, 2021.

The Canadian Press