People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, in a letter to Leaders’ Debates Commissioner David Johnston, argues he should be invited to the debates because there are five ridings he believes his party is most likely to win...one of those is Nipissing-Temiskaming.
It's contained in a letter dated today (August 23) in which Bernier responds to Johnston's request for a list of three to five ridings that Bernier believes are the most likely to elect a candidate.
One of the standards leaders must meet is that candidates must have a legitimate chance to be elected in the general election,
"As a very young party, with Electoral District Associations established only a few months ago, we have little information about the regional distribution of our support across the country, and its concentration in specific ridings," writes Bernier. "We also do not have the financial resources to conduct polls in 338 ridings to determine whether more than one candidate has a reasonable chance of being elected at this time."
See: Snub of People's Party leader from televised debates 'senseless' says King.
Bernier argues the election campaign could have a huge impact on the chance of electing a candidate because of the high level of volatility and disaffection of the electorate, and "the fact that populist parties similar to the PPC have experienced very rapid growth in other Western countries."
Bernier thinks King can be one of those winners.
"For all these reasons, the only information I can provide is a list of five candidates who are better known in their riding as public figures and therefore will start this campaign with an advantage that others don’t have.
- Maxime Bernier (Beauce)
- Mark King (Nipissing-Timiskaming)
- Renata Ford (Etobicoke North)
- Steven Fletcher (Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley)
- Corneliu Chisu (Pickering-Uxbridge)
Bernier also argues that media presence and visibility of his party nation-wide is greater than the Green Party and Bloc Quebecois.
”We have queried the Meltwater international media monitoring database to ascertain our media presence over the past year since I left the Conservative Party and announced I would form a new party. Media hits include all Canadian online and print media sources."
Total Number of Media Hits (From August 23, 2018, to August 19, 2019)
- Maxime Bernier 23,518
- Elizabeth May 15,167
- Yves- Francois Blanchet 935
- Jagmeet Singh 39,738
- Andrew Scheer 102,000
- Justin Trudeau 385,000
"You will note that I received 1.5X more media coverage than Elizabeth May, and 25X more media coverage than Yves-François Blanchet, two party leaders invited to the Debates. I also received more than half the media coverage of Jagmeet Singh, the leader of a party with a long history that currently holds 40 seats in the House of Commons, as well as one quarter the coverage of the leader of the Official Opposition.
"Finally, the overwhelming majority of media commentators who have expressed an opinion over the past weeks argue that I deserve to be invited to the debates, so that Canadians have a chance to hear about one of the important political options on the table and make a fully informed democratic choice. These commentators are best positioned to analyze the recent political context and draw conclusions from it."
