Green Party of Canada exploring legal options after debate exclusion: Pedneault

Green Party Co-leader Jonathan Pedneault explains why he believes the dis-invitation was a coordinated effort by Bloc and Conservative commentators.

Green Party of Canada co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says his team is exploring its legal options after the Leaders’ Debates Commission (LDC) announced this week it would rescind the party’s invitations to both of the 2025 election debates.

“I think it’s a very unfortunate and sad day,” Pedneault told CTV Your Morning in an interview Thursday. “This, for me, very clearly is a political decision and a sad one for democracy.”

Pedneault was scheduled to participate in Wednesday’s French-language debate until early that morning, when the LDC rescinded the Greens’ invitation to both it and Thursday’s English-language debate.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the commission wrote that the Green party “no longer meets the intention of the participation criteria to justify inclusion in the leaders’ debates,” after its number of candidates fell below the minimum threshold.

According to LDC rules, leaders may participate if they meet two of three criteria: A seat in the House of Commons before the current election, candidates endorsed in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings and at least four per cent support in the polls.

On the commission’s eligibility deadline at the end of last month, the Greens met the first two criteria but held less than four per cent in aggregate polling.

Since then, the party’s candidate total has decreased, a trend the commission has described as “strategic,” but that the party’s own leaders have attributed to outside pressures on individual candidates and party volunteers, including “bullying, harassment and threats of violence.”

“We faced significant challenges in the field, with a lot of pushback from various parties, and also citizens; difficulty collecting signatures needed by Elections Canada for confirmation,” Pedneault said.

“Now, it appears the commission is punishing us for both doing that, but also in some, few cases, having candidates who decided not to run because they faced criticisms in their community that they were quote-unquote ‘splitting the vote.’”

Elizabeth May, the Green party’s other co-leader, said Wednesday that it was “unfair” to exclude Pedneault but not Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, whose party only runs candidates within Quebec, while the Greens have endorsed candidates in every province and in two of Canada’s three territories.

The LDC’s invitation letter to Blanchet notes that the Bloc qualified by holding a seat in the previous House of Commons and holding at least four per cent support in the polls.

Pedneault admitted dropped candidates was strategic: LDC

The head of the LDC, however, said Pedneault admitted his team withdrew candidates for strategic reasons.

“Mr. Pedneault said the day before the debate that they had withdrawn voluntarily some of these candidates from running for strategic reasons and to actually prevent the election of the Conservative Party,” said LDC Executive Director Michel Cormier, in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Thursday.

“This was a breach of the whole philosophy of the debates and of the criteria, and then we had no choice but actually to withdraw the invitation,” Cormier added.

When pressed by Kapelos on whether the determining factor in the decision to disinvite the Greens was Pedneault’s admission that the party’s number of candidates was strategic, Cormier said: “exactly.”

Cormier said it was a “very serious decision” he wishes he hadn’t had to make.

‘Not the end of it’

Liberal Leader Mark Carney, while campaigning in Montreal Wednesday ahead of the debate, said it was a surprising move from the commission, but ultimately it’s an independent body.

“I think what’s important is that the issues around climate change and the energy transition and nature and biodiversity are appropriately aired during the course of the debate. So, I’m sorry they’re not there,” Carney said.

Carney previously declined to take part in a televised debate proposed by French-language broadcaster TVA due to the Green party not being invited to participate.

Jennifer Howard, NDP national campaign director, said that her party respects the decision of the commission.

“As an independent non-partisan body, it is their job to ensure all political parties follow the same criteria for inclusion in the debates. We reject any attempt to undermine or politicize their decision-making,” Howard said in a media statement.

The Canadian Press had reached out to the Conservatives Wednesday but did not receive a comment.

In a post to X days before the decision was announced, Blanchet argued for the Greens’ exclusion, saying Pedneault’s presence would cut down on the other parties’ speaking time.

Speaking with CTV Your Morning, Pedneault accused “Conservative and Bloc commentators” of putting pressure on the commission to exclude the Greens, saying, in his characterization of their argument, the Greens would “steal attention from the needed questioning of Mark Carney.”

An opinion piece published Tuesday by the National Post, a newspaper Pedneault mentioned by name, argued the Greens "don’t belong in the debates," citing the insufficient candidate total and describing their inclusion, which had not yet been reversed at the time, as “unjust” and an “impediment to democracy.”

Pedneault also criticized his competing party leaders, expressing disappointment in what he called lacking support from fellow progressives in the NDP and describing Bloc Leader Blanchet as “afraid of another Quebecer on stage, debating with him.”

CTVNews.ca has reached out to the Conservative Party of Canada and Bloc Quebecois for comment in response to Pedneault’s remarks.

“The Liberals were the only one, interestingly enough, even though we have many, many points of disagreement with them, to say that the decision was unfortunate,” Pedneault said.

Asked if he expected the LDC to reverse its decision for Thursday night’s English debate, Pedneault said it would be “the right thing to do,” but alluded to the impact on Canada’s Francophone electorate, now that the French debate has already concluded.

“This is a bilingual country,” he said.

Pedneault said that the matter was not yet settled, in his view.

“We’re still exploring the various legal recourse we have; this is not the end of it for the commission, for sure,” he said. “I spent 15 years of my life fighting for human rights and uplifting voices in conflict areas, of various people. I find it extremely infuriating to see a non-elected body in this country decide what the viability, or so-called viability of a political party would be, especially one with seats in the House of Commons.”

The LDC decision, Pedneault said, signifies a broader push toward an American-style two-party system.

“Canada is too diverse and too big to accommodate this sort of simple narrative. Unfortunately, we see a lot of very powerful actors in this society push in that direction. That won’t prevent us from continuing to do the work,” he said.

“We’re presenting our platform today; we’re continuing to offer an opportunity for Canadians to take a real stand for social justice and environmental justice.”

Asked during his interview on Power Play about Pedneault’s assertion that he was disinvited because of pressure from other parties, Cormier pushed back.

“We don’t engage with other parties on the others’ credentials,” he told Kapelos.

Party leaders from the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Quebecois will face off in the second and final debate Thursday night in Montreal.

With files from The Canadian Press