Carney declined French TVA debate upon learning Green Party wasn’t invited, he says
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has declined to participate in a French-language debate with the other federal party leaders on TVA, causing the broadcaster to cancel the program.
TVA traditionally hosts a “Face-à-Face” French-language leaders’ debate during federal election campaigns, reaching an average of 1.3 million viewers, according to Quebecor Media, the parent company of TVA.
But not this time.
“The main political parties had until today to confirm their participation,” the QMI media team said Monday afternoon. “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.”
Groupe TVA had requested $75,000 from each of the main parties to help cover the costs of producing the program. Groupe TVA cut some 500 jobs and would have had to hire freelancers and redesign a studio to produce the program, the media team said. TVA does take advertising revenue from the broadcast.
“Due to the difficult financial, economic and competitive situation affecting Groupe TVA as well as the entire industry (except Société Radio-Canada), the only option we have to present Face-à-Face is to ask parties to contribute to the production cost,” said Louis-Philippe Neveu, the show’s executive producer.
Earlier Monday, Carney had responded in the affirmative to a Radio-Canada reporter who asked whether he would participate in TVA’s debate.
“Why not?” he responded in French. “Yes, yes. There will be debates between the leaders and all the leaders. ... For all the debates you have to have all the leaders.”
But on Tuesday, he said he’d opted to pull out of the debate after realizing that the Green Party hadn’t been invited.
“I said ‘why not, if we have a debate with the leaders of all the parties,’” Carney said.
The Liberal leader said he would participate in the Leaders’ Debate Commission debates, which are scheduled for April 16 and 17 in Montreal.
“I look forward to those debates,” he said.
A party source said Monday that there was a reluctance to pay for the debate.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to criticize Carney’s move.
“The Liberals want to be re-elected for a fourth term, but their leader is too afraid to debate me in French,” reads Poilievre’s post on X. “If Mark Carney is too fragile to debate other leaders, how can he stand up to Donald Trump?”
The Bloc Québécois and NDP said Carney’s move was anti-Quebec.
“The Liberal leader claims to have the strength and courage to confront Donald Trump, but he doesn’t even have the courage to come and speak to Quebecers. He disqualifies himself, and Quebecers will pass judgment without appeal,” said Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.
NDP deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice said it was “very insulting to Quebec” and that “no matter what excuse he gives, the truth is that Mark Carney prefers to hide and not answer questions in French.”
“I’m not hiding at all,” Carney said Tuesday, “During my leadership campaign, I spent more time in Quebec than any other province. I’m going there in two days. I’m focussed on the big issues for Quebec around culture, the French language, supply management,” he said, switching back and forth between French and English.
All of the main party leaders are still expected to participate in the official debates to be held in Montreal at Maison de Radio-Canada on April 16 and 17, the Leaders’ Debates Commission announced on Monday.
The French debate will be at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16 and the English debate at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 17.
The Leaders’ Debates Commission is an independent public body mandated to organize two leaders’ debates in each federal general election, one in each official language “while paying special attention to Canada’s Indigenous languages,” according to a statement by the commission.
In order to be invited by the commission to participate in the leaders’ debates, a leader of a registered political party must meet at least two of the following three criteria:
- On the date the election is called, the party is represented in the House of Commons by a member of Parliament who was elected as a member of that party.
- Twenty-eight days before the date of the election, the party received at least four per cent voting support as measured by leading national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations’ most recent results.
- Twenty-eight days before the date of the election, the party has endorsed candidates in at least 90 per cent of federal ridings.
The commission will announce which leaders will be invited to participate in the debates on April 1.
Postmedia News contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM.
