1 day Ago By Sean Boynton
The five leading federal political parties have qualified to participate in the upcoming leaders’ debates for this month’s general election. Liberal Leader Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault will face off in the French-language debate on April 16 and the English-language debate on April 17. The independent Leaders’ Debates Commission said Tuesday the Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat, Bloc Quebecois and Green parties each met two of the three criteria set shortly after the election was called last month.
The People’s Party of Canada only met one of those criteria — that a party must have candidates nominated in at least 90 per cent of all federal ridings — so did not qualify, the commission said. Tuesday’s statement confirmed the Greens had nominated candidates in all 343 ridings, and qualified because it also had at least one sitting member of Parliament on the date of the election call. The other four parties also met that threshold, as well as a third criteria to have a national opinion poll average of at least four per cent.
According to the commission, as of March 31, the Liberals are leading all parties in polls from “leading national public opinion polling organizations” with an average of nearly 43 per cent, followed by the Conservatives at 36.9 per cent. The New Democrats earned an average of 8.
7 per cent support across recognized polls, while the Bloc Quebecois are seeing 5.5 per cent nationally. The commission did not say in its statement which specific polls were used to determine those averages, but has released its criteria for which polls it considers on its website.
The latest Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News, released Sunday, found 44 per cent of decided voters would cast their ballots for the Liberals. The Conservatives received 38 per cent support, while nine per cent chose the NDP. Twenty-four per cent of Quebec voters said they would vote for the Bloc Quebecois, which translated to five per cent nationally, and the Greens earned two per cent support.
This month’s debates will be held at the Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal and televised across the country, the independent commission said. The French-language debate will be held on April 16 at 8 p.m.
eastern time, followed by the English-language debate on April 17 at 7 p.m. eastern.
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