The Green Party says it deliberately didn’t run candidates in some ridings, even though the party submitted a full slate of potential candidates to the commission responsible for organizing the leadership debates.

The party isn’t running nominees in over 100 ridings, and Green Party Co-Leader Jonathan Pedneault told Radio-Canada last week that some of this was deliberate. He said his party made a “strategic decision” not to run candidates in ridings where they think Conservatives would likely win.

Pedneault told CBC News on Tuesday that the party pulled 15 candidates for that reason.

One of the criteria to appear at this week’s leaders’ debates is that a party endorses candidates in 90 per cent of ridings. Dropping 15 candidates would still keep the Greens above the 90 per cent threshold set out by the debate commission. 

But that leaves 96 ridings where the Greens aren’t represented after accounting for the 15 pulled candidates.

Pedneault told CBC News that some candidates were being intimated by constituents, while others had difficulty filing their nomination forms with Elections Canada.

The Elections Canada filing deadline was April 7, but parties had to submit their slate of candidates to the federal debates commission a week earlier.

Rod Leggett, a party spokesperson, told CBC News that some nominees had issues with local Elections Canada employees known as returning officers.

“Elections Canada is a top-notch election management body, recognized across the globe. But at the local level the Green Party has experienced higher levels of issues than in the past,” Leggett said in an email.

The Elections Canada Act requires a candidate to gather 100 signatures from voters in their riding in order to register. Leggett said Green candidates had trouble verifying nomination signatures because some returning officers didn’t have an updated list of electors.

WATCH | Pedneault says having all parties at debates ‘benefits Canadian democracy’: 

Pedneault says having all parties at debates ‘benefits Canadian democracy’

Green Party Co-Leader Jonathan Pedneault, speaking in Montreal on Day 23 of the election campaign, explains why the Green Party and all other parties should be welcomed at the upcoming federal election debates.

Elections Canada said the Green Party has been in touch with concerns over the nomination process and is looking into the matter. But an Elections Canada spokesperson said the list of candidates is now “final” and suggested timelines might have been an issue.

“While it is regrettable that some candidates were unable to fulfil the provisions of the act to become a candidate, we strongly encourage candidates to submit early and engage their local returning office,” the spokesperson said in an email.

“Returning officers work with prospective candidates to make sure their nominations are complete, but issues identified near the close of nominations provide limited time to have them corrected.”

The other major parties have representation in nearly all ridings.

With candidates running in 232 of the 343 federal ridings, Pedneault is still set to participate in this week’s leadership debates.

The Leaders’ Debates Commission, which is tasked with organizing the French and English debates, has defended its decision to invite the Greens ahead of the nomination deadline, saying it needed time to organize the debates.

Pedneault told reporters Monday that he should be included in the debates even though his party has a smaller slate of candidates.

“I think it simply benefits Canadian democracy to have the Greens at the table and have as many voices to debate the future of our country,” he said during a news conference.