Even if you don't like the PPC, Bernier should be in the debate
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Summary
Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada has been excluded from the first round of debates by the Official Debate Commission, a bureaucracy set up by the federal government to decide who gets to debate among party leaders in a state-sanctioned debate.
Transcript
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As the 2019 election nears, it's the government who gets to decide who has the privilege of
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The official debate commission, the bureaucracy set up by the federal government, by the Trudeau
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Liberals, has issued its first round of invitations for what will be the state-sanctioned leadership
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In the invitation list are the leaders of the New Democratic Party, the Conservative
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Party, the Liberal Party, the Green Party, and the Bloc Québécois.
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Conspicuously absent from the list is Maxime Bernier, the leader of the fledgling People's
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It's not particularly surprising that the commission has excluded the PPC, but what
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is surprising is how they did it so brazenly while inviting the Green Party and the Bloc
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Now, how the leaders debate commission is justifying this decision is by the three criteria it set
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out, of which two must be fulfilled by any prospective leader wishing to take part in
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In no particular order, the first is that you must have an MP from the particular party.
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Another is that you must have candidates nominated in 90% of ridings.
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And a third is that you must have a likelihood of winning more than one seat based on polling
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information and the discretion of the debate commissioner.
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He is a People's Party of Canada member of parliament.
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The PPC has more candidates nominated than the Liberals, the NDP, and the Greens, and certainly
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But where the tricky part is, is that he does not meet the debate commissioner's threshold
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for discretion given the low polling number that the PPC has.
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I think we've seen demonstrably them be wrong in the past, but this is the data on which
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But the problem is the commission has moved the goalposts, most notably on whether him
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You see, back in November 2018, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould, whose ministry actually
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includes this debate commission, said that Bernier would only need to have the nomination threshold
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But now the debate commission has changed this and said, no, no, no, you have to be an MP who
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So you had to be an MP who was elected as a People's Party of Canada representative rather
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than just converting to one when you founded the party as Maxime Bernier did.
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Bernier announced he'd be founding the PPC last summer.
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It looks very much as though the rules were deliberately designed to include Elizabeth
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May and the Greens and to exclude Maxime Bernier.
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But remember, Elizabeth May was featured in the 2008 leaders debate three years before her
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The Green Party of Canada was around for 28 years before it ever had any electoral success
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whatsoever, founded in 1983, was taken seriously by the media, even though Elizabeth May didn't
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It wasn't until just a few months ago in a by-election the party won a second seat.
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The Bloc Québécois has a mathematical likelihood of zero of forming government because it only plans
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to run candidates in Quebec, in one province in this country.
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Yet the Bloc Québécois is included to participate in the debate.
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I've been sounding the alarm about the debate commission for quite some time,
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but these decisions prove that it is in fact a sham.
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You don't need to support Maxime Bernier or support the PPC to say that they should have
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It's a growing party, it's a new party, but quite frankly, it's in a greater position
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than Elizabeth May was in 2008 when she was invited to participate in the leaders' debates.
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Now, an easy way around this would be to get rid of this official state-sanctioned debate
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Let private organizations and media outlets, as happened in 2015, have their own debates.
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This is happening this year, you know, McLean's is putting together one,
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the Monk debates are putting together one as well, and they can make their own decision
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about who gets to be included and who doesn't get to be included.
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But when the government is the one doing this, it looks like there is political intervention
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in this process, especially when there seems to be a reversal from what was previously said
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True North is planning on covering this election honestly, transparently, and fairly.
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And to do that, you need to hear from all sides.
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You need to hear from all different perspectives.
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Now, people are saying that, oh, well, the PPC is no more suited to be in the debate
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as the Marxist-Leninist party or the progressive Canadian party.
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We know the PPC has, right out of the gate, a larger footprint than the fringe parties
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that it is being compared to by critics of the PPC.
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True North is going to continue to cover this, which means all parties that are making a dent
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in the national discussion need to be included.
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