Hilarious… so the req is to have someone in the house (or 4% vote share nationally), and run candidates in most ridings. They’re getting cut because the elections folks think they are in violation of the latter there.
While still allowing the Bloc to participate. A party that’s never run a candidate outside of Quebec. A party where every second of time they’re givin on a national stage, only speaks to one province’s interests, in a ‘national’ debate. Who’s been in pretty well every national debate for decades now.
I certainly agree that it’s very questionable to have an explicitly regional party in the federal debates, but for clarity’s sake, the criteria are 2/3 of the following:
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having at least one sitting MP who’s been elected as a member of that party
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having at least four per cent national support in opinion polls
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running candidates in at least 90 per cent of all ridings
After pulling the candidates, the Green Party only meets one of these criteria (the first).
Those requirements are designed to allow Quebec’s provincial party a seat at the table, while impeding access for parties such as the Greens and Peoples. They’re basically an example of institutional discrimination that came in fairly recently, with a pretty explicit target/goal.
I have much less interest in sitting through a debate between 4 people, when 1/4 of the time will be dedicated to a guy talking about one province’s interests, and where that party doesn’t even run outside of that province. Guess I’ll just wait for my media bubbles to give me the highlights and hope that it’s not too biased.
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