Federal leaders' debates scheduled for April 16-17 in Montreal

The leaders of the main federal political parties will be invited to face off in mid-April — if they meet certain criteria, announced the Leaders' Debates Commission Monday.

The commission, a government agency created in 2018 to organize federal leaders' debates, said the French debate will take place April 16 at 8 p.m. ET and the English debate will be held April 17 at 7 p.m. ET.

Both events will be hosted at the Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal.

Leaders of a registered political party can only participate if they meet at least two of three criteria.

The commission's first requirement is that the leader's party had to be represented in the House of Commons by at least one MP before dissolution.

The second is that the leader's party must be polling at least four per cent 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 is that the party must have candidates nominated in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings across Canada, also 28 days before the federal election.

The commission said it will announce which leaders will be invited to participate on April 1.

The threshold to participate this time around differs from 2021, when a leader only had to meet one of the three conditions.

Earlier this year, People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, who did not participate in the 2021 leaders' debate because his party could not meet one of the three requirements, took aim at the rule change for 2025. 

"This change only has one obvious purpose, one that unites the whole political establishment in Ottawa," he said when the criteria were announced. "These new rules only affect me, the leader of the only new party to emerge forcefully on the federal political scene in decades."

Commission changing format this year

The commission is also moving ahead with a simpler and more flexible format this year that it says will encourage "meaningful exchanges between the leaders."

The commission previously announced that, unlike the 2021 debate where multiple journalists were allowed to ask the leaders questions, the next debate will be restricted to a single moderator and the leaders themselves. 

The commission picked CBC/Radio-Canada to produce and put on the debates, and named longtime TVO journalist Steve Paikin to host the English-language debate. Radio-Canada's Patrice Roy will host the French-language debate. 

Other broadcasters and media organizations can distribute the debate on their platforms.

The commission's review of its 2021 format found that the debates "did not deliver as well as they should have on informing voters about parties' policies.

"A consensus emerged among the stakeholders consulted that the format was too rigid, too complex, too confusing, involved too many journalists on stage and did not sufficiently generate debate between the leaders," the report said.

TVA cancels its debate

The commission's debate was not the only event being pitched ahead of the April 28 vote. The private French-language network TVA was trying to mount a head-to-head French-language debate — for a cost.

Participants would have had to shell out $75,000 each. The Quebecor Media-owned television network said Friday it needed a total of $300,000 to offset the cost of producing the event. 

In a statement Monday, Quebecor said it wasn't going ahead after the Liberals didn't accept the broadcaster's invitation.

"Unfortunately, although the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party of Canada and the NDP accepted the broadcaster's invitation, TVA regrets to announce that it is forced to cancel the presentation of the face-à-face debate due to the Liberal Party of Canada's refusal to participate," said the media company's public affairs arm.

Earlier in the day, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre goaded Liberal Leader Mark Carney to debate him on TVA.

"If he thinks that the Liberals should have a fourth term after the lost Liberal decade, he should say yes," said Poilievre in French during a stop in Brampton, Ont.

During his own news conference Monday, Carney gave a simple "Why not?" when asked about the TVA debate.

The Liberals later followed up saying Carney will not participate in the proposed face-à-face organized by TVA.

"He looks forward to participating in the official debates organized by the Leaders' Debates Commission," said campaign spokesperson Guillaume Bertrand.

Both Poilievre and Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet seized on the flip-flop, accusing Carney of being afraid of debating them in French.

Carney's French isn't nearly as strong as his rivals. His performance in the French-language Liberal leadership debate received underwhelming reviews.