Green Party booted from leaders' debates due to lack of candidates

OTTAWA — The committee overseeing the federal leaders’ debates has disinvited the Green party from the proceedings in a surprise last-minute ruling. The Leaders’ Debates Commission said in a Thursday morning press release explaining the decision that the Greens aren’t running enough candidates to be a factor in the election. “The Commission’s mandate is to design debates that are ‘effective, informative, and compelling and benefit from the participation of the leaders who have the greatest likelihood of becoming Prime Minister or whose political parties have the greatest likelihood of winning seats in Parliament,'” read the statement. “(We were) guided by these principles in setting the participation criteria for the 45th general election, including (that) the party has endorsed candidates in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings.” The Green Party hadn’t named candidates in more than 100 of the 343 federal ridings in play, as of this week, putting it well below the 90 per cent threshold. Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault said last week that part of this shortfall was due to a “strategic decision” not to run Green candidates in ridings where the Conservatives were running strong, so as not to split the progressive vote. Pedneaut had planned to make his leadership debate debut Wednesday evening in Montreal. The Green party didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on the commission’s ruling. The first of two leaders’ debates starts at 6 PM ET on Wednesday. National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.