The Leaders’ Debates Commission has released the rules for the English- and French-language leaders’ debates that are to be held during the next federal election race.
Parties need 4% support, 90% of candidates registered, at least 1 MP elected under party banner
Peter Zimonjic · CBC News
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The Leaders’ Debates Commission has released rules for the English- and French-language leaders’ debates that are to be held during the next federal election campaign.
The commission — a government agency created in 2018 to organize federal leaders’ debates — said that a leader of a registered political party can only participate if they meet at least two of three criteria.
The first requirement is that the leader has to be represented in the House of Commons by an MP who was elected under the party banner on the day the election is called.
That regulation prohibits party leaders from claiming they comply with the rules if their only member or members switched parties during the parliamentary sitting.
The second criteria is that the leader’s party must have the demonstrated support of at least four per cent of the electorate 28 days before voting day.
The commission says voting intention will be determined using the most recent results of “leading national public opinion polling organizations.”
The third requirement is that the party must have endorsed candidates in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings across Canada 28 days before the federal election. This condition was last in place in the 2019 federal election.
To meet this requirement, the party’s chief agent needs to submit a list of candidates that have been endorsed in federal ridings no later than 28 days before the election.
After reviewing the results of the 2021 census, Elections Canada announced that the number of seats in the 2025 federal election is increasing from 338 to 343.
Providing at least two of the criteria are met, the commission will issue invitations to the party leaders to participate in the debate 27 days before election day.
One moderator, no journalist questions
“These criteria balance realized and potential for electoral success,” Michel Cormier, executive director of the Leaders’ Debates Commission, said in a statement.
“They measure both electability and viability, and they serve the public interest and the voting public by ensuring the leaders invited on the debate stage represent a current picture of the country’s political forces at play at the time of the next general election,” Cormier added.
“They are simple, clear, objective and measurable.”
The commission sought and received input from the parties represented in the House prior to releasing its rules. It also reached out to 30 debate organizers in North America, Europe and around the world to compare notes.
In October, the commission announced that unlike the 2021 debate, where journalists were allowed to ask the leaders questions, the next debate will be restricted to a single moderator and the leaders themselves.
The commission, which picked CBC/Radio-Canada to put on the debates, has named longtime TVO journalist Steve Paikin to host the English-language debate and Radio-Canada’s Patrice Roy to host the French-language debate.
Both Paikin and Roy have hosted leaders’ debates in the past.
Other broadcasters and media organizations can distribute the debate on their platforms for free, the commission said.
Differences from the last debate
The criteria to participate in the 2021 leaders’ debate were a little different.
Back then, the commission also published a list of three requirements but said a party leader only had to meet one of the three conditions for participation, rather than two this time.
The first requirement in 2021 was the same as it is this year; having an MP in the House of Commons who was elected under the party banner.
The second condition in 2021 was that the party had received at least four per cent of valid votes in the previous election.
The commission explained that because political parties that have secured more than four per cent of the vote in a previous election can disappear by the following election — like The Canadian Alliance, The Reform Party and the Progressive Conservative Party — basing a requirement entirely on the last election can’t predict how likely a party would be to elect MPs again.
The requirement to have at least four per cent voter support 28 days from voting day, as determined by polls, the commission said, was a better indicator of a party’s chances.
The third condition last election was that the party needed public support of at least four per cent, as measured by leading national public opinion polling, by five days after the election was called.
The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Leader Maxime Bernier, who did not participate in the 2021 leaders’ debate because his party could not meet one of the three requirements, criticized the rule change for 2025.
“This change only has one obvious purpose, one that unites the whole political establishment in Ottawa,” Bernier said in a statement. “These new rules only affect me, the leader of the only new party to emerge forcefully on the federal political scene in decades.”
The PPC has never elected an MP under their party banner.
“It’s still possible for the PPC to qualify of course, but we are again at the mercy of dubious polls, some of which we know deliberately exclude the PPC from the list of potential responses, which inevitably understates our level of support,” he added.
Bernier said that had the 2021 rules remained, his party would qualify. In 2021, the PPC polled at less than four per cent but went on to secure almost five per cent of the vote on election day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Zimonjic is a senior writer for CBC News. He has worked as a reporter and columnist in London, England, for the Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail, and in Canada for the Ottawa Citizen, Torstar and Sun Media. He is the author of Into The Darkness: An Account of 7/7, published by Random House.
