TORONTO â All party leaders invited to participate in two official election debates have confirmed their attendance in the events, which will be moderated by some of Canadaâs top journalists.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet have agreed to debate each other in English and French, the Canadian Debate Production Partnership (CDPP) announced Tuesday.
The English debate on Oct. 7 will be led by:
- Althia Raj from HuffPost Canada
- Susan Delacourt from the Toronto Star
- Rosemary Barton from CBC News
- Dawna Friesen from Global News
- Lisa LaFlamme from CTV News
Each moderator will guide a distinct section of the debate.
The French event on Oct. 10, will be moderated by Patrice Roy from Radio-Canada, and feature journalists from Le Devoir, Le Soleil, La Presse and LâActualitĂ©.
âMeaningful and beautiful spaceâ
This yearâs debates, held more than a week before the election on Oct. 21, will be located at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., which overlooks the Ottawa River across from Parliament Hill.
It is a âmeaningful and beautiful spaceâ to hold the debates, said Jennifer McGuire of the CDPP, because the museumâs purpose is to âenhance Canadiansâ knowledge and understanding of the events, experiences, people and objects that shape Canadaâs identity.â
But the debate lineup is not fully final as the Peopleâs Party of Canada (PPC) has started an online petition calling for its leader Maxime Bernier to participate in the debates.
Former governor general David Johnston and current commissioner of the Leadersâ Debates Commission told Bernier he wouldnât be invited because the party does not have an MP who was elected under the Peopleâs Party banner.
âIt wonât be a real debate if Iâm not there,â Bernier told supporters Sunday. âIt will be a phoney discussion where they attack each other on their superficial differences.â
Johnstonâs ruling is not set in stone as he has asked the PPC to identify three to five ridings where it thinks it can win. Bernier told reporters that his party doesnât poll and he has no intention of providing Johnston with such a list before weekâs end.
The CDPP is comprised of HuffPost Canada, HuffPost QuĂ©bec, CTV News, CBC News, Radio-Canada, Global News, the Toronto Star and Torstar, La Presse, Le Devoir and LâActualitĂ©.
The participation of HuffPost Canada means that, for the first time, a digital-only news organization is part of the production group for the leadersâ debates.
Michel Cormier, executive director of the debates commission, has said that the debatesâ goal is to present information in an âunmediated and undistorted fashionâ to ensure Canadians are able to make an informed decision at the polls.
âCome election day, that will be better for democracy,â Cormier said.
The debates will be broadcast in additional languages, including Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin and Italian, plus a number of Indigenous languages. American sign language, Québec sign language, closed captioning and described video will also be available.
âThis, for us, is very important,â Cormier said.
With files from The Canadian Press
Earlier on HuffPost: