After Carney said he would not attend the debate, Quebec broadcaster TVA cancelled the event
After Carney said he would not attend the debate, Quebec broadcaster TVA cancelled the event
After Carney said he would not attend the debate, Quebec broadcaster TVA cancelled the event
Pierre Poilievre said he would pay the broadcaster’s $75,000 fee for Prime Minister Mark Carney to take part in a now-cancelled French-language debate.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada told reporters on Tuesday that Carney’s excuses for not wanting to face off against other politicians were changing “from day to day.”
“I want to challenge Mark Carney to show up for the debate at TVA in Quebec. He’s running away and hiding because he believes he’s too weak to defend the lost Liberal decade or explain why he thinks Liberals deserve a fourth term,” said Poilievre, speaking at a press conference in Vaughan.
“I’ll even pay Mr. Carney’s fee so he can show up. We’ll take that excuse away from him. Conservatives will even pay the fee to bring him out.”
Poilievre also said another reason why Carney wouldn’t join the debate was because Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May wasn’t invited.
“I’ll invite her,” said Poilievre.
The debate was set to be held by Quebec-based broadcaster TVA, which revealed Friday that it would be asking four candidates — Carney, Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet — for a $75,000 fee to cover filming costs, CTV News reported.
After Carney said he would not attend the debate, TVA cancelled the event.
“The main political parties had until today to confirm their participation,” QMI, the company that owns TVA, told the Montreal Gazette on Monday. “Sadly, although the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party of Canada and the NDP accepted the broadcaster’s invitation, TVA regrets to announce that it has been forced to cancel this Face-à-Face event due to the Liberal Party of Canada’s refusal to participate.”
Meanwhile, there was some confusion about why Carney decided to cancel.
He responded, “Why not? Yes, yes,” when a Radio-Canada reporter asked him whether he would be attending the debate on Monday, per the Gazette. However, on Tuesday, he said he would not be at the TVA debate because the Green Party of Canada’s leader Elizabeth May was not invited.
“If he’s still too weak and fragile to debate at TVA, then he’s too weak and fragile to stand up to Donald Trump and for our country,” Poilievre said.
In a statement to the National Post on Monday, Liberal party spokesperson Guillaume Bertrand said that Carney “looks forward to participating in the Leaders’ Debate Commission debates, which were confirmed today for April 16 and 17 in Montreal.”
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