Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May said she received a “rude awakening” on Wednesday morning at 4:30 a.m. PT that “something quite unbelievable had happened.”
The federal debate commission rescinded an invitation to the Green Party to participate in the debates, saying that “the Commission concludes that because the Green Party of Canada has intentionally reduced the number of candidates running in the election for strategic reasons, it no longer meets the intention of the participation criteria to justify inclusion in the leaders’ debates.”
The French language debate is set for Wednesday night, while the English language debate is scheduled for Thursday night.
May, who first participated in a leaders’ debate in 2008, said the rules over the years have changed and shifted but the Green Party has always met the criteria to participate.
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“The consistency in it is its inconsistency,” May said. “A desire by larger parties to keep out the Green Party.”
She said …