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‘Chance to be heard by all Canadians’: Candidate reacts to PPC leader added to debates

Sep 16, 2019 | 4:52 PM

The local candidate for the People’s Party of Canada is pleased to see his leader, Maxime Bernier, will be allowed to take part in two televised leaders’ debates next month, after earlier being denied.

Kyle Delfing said it was the right thing for organizers to do, calling it one of the fastest growing parties in Canadian history.

“We have a lot of people behind us here, and for our [candidate] to be excluded from the debate would have been a little bit of an unfair advantage for the other parties,” Delfing told Vernon Matters.

Bernier was previously denied a chance to attend the debates because the independent commission responsible for organizing the events found his party did not have multiple candidates with a “legitimate chance” of being elected in the Oct. 21 vote.

The debates commissioner now says the party has a “reasonable chance” of winning multiple seats based on its membership, and recent polling numbers.

Delfing said the publicity about party platforms will help PPC candidates like himself, get their names out, something he admits has been hard to do so far.

“I’m happy to see we have the opportunity to be heard by all Canadians on a national platform that all the parties are equal to. We all fought for the Green Party’s inclusion last time around, and I was happy with that. Even though I don’t vote Green, I still felt their voices should be heard, and I’m happy we got the same decision.”

Delfing said the PPC has over 44,000 members and 320 candidates, which he says makes them the second largest party running in the federal election.

“One of the hardest things we’ve had is getting our name out there in this short time. When I’m door-knocking, people don’t hear about it, but if we’re going to start making national news and headlines more often, it should help everybody.”

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