Which 15 Greens dropped out of the race to avoid splitting the anti-Tory vote?

Did any?

The Green Party of Canada won’t be at either federal leadership debate because they didn’t meet all three criteria for participation. The criteria:

1. Have at least one sitting member of Parliament when the House dissolves. No worries. They had one to spare.

2. Be polling at over 4 % nationally. No luck there since the party’s existence is currently within the margin of error and/or…

3. Have candidates running in 90 percent of Canada’s ridings.

The Greens aren’t close to 90 percent - they’re at 68 - but co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says that’s because they did something unprecedented, something you’d think they'd be boasting about as a party that longtime leader Elizabeth May often says is committed to not doing politics as usual.

Pedneault told Radio Canada the Greens made a “strategic decision” not to run candidates in 15 ridings in order to avoid splitting the non-Tory vote. Leaving aside that 15 more candidates still might not get them to that 90 percent mark, this is historic, unprecedented and very, very newsworthy.

But Pedneault didn’t tell Radio Canada what all Canadian voters ought to know now… before we go to the polls… which ridings did the Greens choose to stand down in?

Why?

How?

And perhaps most importantly… What were the criteria for choosing the ridings where Greens would step aside?

As someone who receives multiple emails a day from the Green Party updating me on their campaign and asking for donations, I was shocked that I hadn’t seen anything touting this unprecedented “Canada first” move. If the party has named the 15 ridings and 15 candidates who selflessly stepped aside to prevent Pierre Pollution Poilievre from becoming Prime Minister, I’ve completely missed the memo.

How did this story not make national headlines before the Greens were booted from the debate?

Since the party is proudly not whipped, who made this “strategic decision?”

Party co-leaders Jonathan Pedneault and/or Elizabeth May?

The Green Party’s National Council?

The candidates themselves?

How were the local riding associations involved with these decisions?

Are these riding associations steering their supporters to help Greens in neighbouring ridings?

Since the candidates stepped aside to stop the Tories, are they formally endorsing the non-Tories they stepped aside to help?

Are they assisting them in their campaigns against Pierre Pollution?

If not, why not?

When I worked for the federal Green Party in the 2019 election, I was told directly by Elizabeth May (and others who ran the party) that there was no mechanism for removing a candidate once they’d been nominated so, assuming that hasn’t changed, who convinced these candidates to step aside?

How?

Or did they all selflessly offer to stand down because they consider Pipeline Poilievre an existential threat to the planet?

I was hoping I could figure out who these heroic climate champions were, so I checked the handful of ridings where 338.com considers the NDP a factor in the election - and wow that’s a very small list.

The Greens’ official website shows no Green candidates running in exactly five ridings where the NDP is currently listed as “unlikely” - two in Quebec (LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and Papineau) and three in Ontario (Essex, Hamilton Mountain and Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk). I spotted exactly two ridings listed as a “toss” that have the NDP in play - Manitoba Churchill—Keewatinook Aski and Ontario’s- London Fanshawe.

If the Green candidates for London Fanshawe and/or Churchill stepped down to avoid a Tory sneaking through in a vote split, who are they endorsing?

The party is also not running against God’s gift to the Greens, Jagmeet Singh - the NDP leader who put May’s party on the electoral map in 2019.

Looking at all the ridings where CBC’s polltracker lists the NDP’s shot as “unlikely” or better the Green appear to still be running candidates in Halifax, Berthier—Maskinongé, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, Outremont (Pedneault himself), Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, Davenport, Hamilton Centre, Oshawa, Ottawa Centre, Sudbury East—Manitoulin—Nickel Belt, Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park, Windsor West, Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, Elmwood-Transcona, Winnipeg Centre, Regina Lewvan, Saskatoon West, Edmonton Griesbach, Edmonton Strathcona, Courtenay—Alberni, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, Port Moody—Coquitlam, Skeena Bulkley Valley, Vancouver East, Victoria and Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee.

Since almost 100 other ridings don’t have Green representation because the party couldn’t find a candidate who 100 people would agree to nominate, surely the 15 candidates who stepped down all had their nomination papers accepted and in order.

The Greens have complained that another reason for their lack of would-be MPs is that their candidates couldn’t collect enough signatures. According to The National Post, Elizabeth May said, “various forms of obstruction, including “bullying, harassment and threats of violence”, prevented multiple candidates from collecting the requisite number of signatures in their ridings.”

So these potential candidates didn’t even have 100 friends and neighbours they could approach? But 90 candidates in Carleton were able to find enough signatures to run against Poilievre? And Max Bernier’s Cranky Peoples Party could get more people to sign forms than the Greens did? Okay…

The 100 people who sign these forms aren’t even committing their vote. They are simply 100 people who live in a riding who are willing to support the democratic idea that a person ought to be allowed to run for office. Since nothing is required from the nominator beyond their signature and address, most candidates for any party - no matter how fringe - can collect these signatures in an hour at a local shopping mall. And most candidates in elections at every level of government (including parks board and school trustee) tend to get extra signatures specifically to avoid issues around certification.

After losing their spot on the debate stage, the Greens have a chance to regain the national spotlight. All they have to do is name the 15 Greens who sacrificed their ambitions and risked the party’s status in the debates in order to stop Pierre Pollution.

An analysis by The Globe and Mail that ran earlier today (April 16th, 2025) found exactly one riding where there’s no Green on the ballot where the Globe reporters believe the absence could help the Liberals - Kitchener-Cosentoga.

The Globe cited eight other ridings where the Greens were still running candidates who they felt could help elect the Tories.

In Nanaimo, former Green MP Paul Manly was a late entry into the race there and some Liberal and NDP voters there suggested that his unexpected return to politics dramatically upped the chances of a Tory victory. But he’s still very much on the ballot.

Since the Greens say dropping candidates was strategic, Canadian voters - especially would-be Green voters, should know - what was/is the strategy?