Canada traditionally holds “premiership” debates between the leaders of four parties, prior to national parliamentary elections. One could consider these the Canadian equivalent of U.S. presidential debates. By tradition, any party that runs candidates for Parliament in a substantial number of Canadian districts, and which has at least one member of Parliament, is included in these debates. Recently, this has meant that the leaders of the Liberal, Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Parties debate.
The Canadian Green Party is pressing to be included in future debates. The Greens ran candidates in all Canadian districts in the last election, but have not yet elected anyone to Parliament. A poll announced on January 22 says that 77% of Canadians want the Greens included, 9% are opposed, and 14% have no opinion. The survey included 1,500 Canadians and was paid for by the Green Party. Note: this item has been amended to take account of information provided by a commenter.
Two small corrections:
The Bloc Quebecois is included in both the English and French language debates, even through it has never fielded candidates outside the province of Quebec.
The Green Party does not contest a majority of seats, it contests all 308 seats in Canada’s House of Commons.
For more information, see http://www.demanddemocraticdebates.ca
Yea, the BQ has always been including in debates as far as I know. There’d be street riots if they weren’t.