OTTAWA -- The head of Canada's Leaders' Debate Commission wants to end post-debate question-and-answer sessions with reporters and lock in new rules that could exclude parties like the Greens from the debate stage.
Interim debate commissioner Michel Cormier discussed those recommendations with MPs at a House of Commons committee meeting on Thursday.
The commission is required to table a report within five months of an election and make recommendations for how to improve future debates.
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In its most recent report, Cormier recommended an end to the post-debate scrums, in which journalists ask leaders questions, after this year's scrums had to be cancelled over safety concerns.
The Green Party's co-leader was disqualified from the debates at the last minute this year because of concerns the party didn't meet the commission's criteria.
For those debates, parties needed to meet two of three criteria for their leaders to be included: have an MP in the House of Commons elected under their current party banner; have public support greater than four per cent in national polls; and field candidates in 90 per cent of ridings.
The Green Party told the commission it intended to run 340 candidates, and the commission invited it to participate. But when Elections Canada confirmed candidates, the party had only 232 candidates, well short of the 90-per-cent threshold.
In his report, Cormier defended the decision to exclude the Greens. "The commission considered that including the leader of the Green Party in these circumstances would undermine the integrity of the debates and the interests of the voting public," the report said.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said the commission's final report seemed as if it was written only to justify its actions. "It did a significant disservice not just to the Green Party of Canada, but to the Canadian voter," she said in an interview with the Star.
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The commission's proposed rule changes would require parties to be running candidates in 90 per cent of ridings according to official registrations with Elections Canada, rather than relying on the parties to provide a list of candidates.
May said the Greens struggled to get enough signatures for candidates after the snap election call, but said her party should have been included in the debates by virtue of its seat in the House of Commons.
"There was never a time that a party with an elected member of Parliament, even one, was excluded from the debates," she said.
The commission is also recommending an end to the question-and-answer sessions that leaders have held individually with journalists after the debates.
This year, the commission chose to cancel the question-and-answer session on the night of the English-language debate after a verbal confrontation in the media room. In its final report, it argues it should not get involved in decisions about who can ask the leaders questions.
"It is neither the commission's role nor its responsibility to attempt to legally define what constitutes journalism," says the report.
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It also says ending the post-debate scrums would "help keep the public's focus on the debates themselves, ensuring that Canadians who did not watch live can still read, watch or hear substantive coverage of what the leaders said on stage."
May said she believes this would be a mistake and take away an opportunity for Canadians to meet party leaders.
"When I was in the leaders' debates, some of the best questions, some of the hardest questions, some of the most interesting exchanges were after it was all over in the scrums," she said.
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