Two People’s Party of Canada candidates are set to take part in a shooting contest to decide who will participate in a pre-election debate.

On Sept. 10, the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce is holding a pre-election debate. They invited only one member of each federal party, however, two People’s Party of Canada candidates couldn’t decide who should go.

One candidate, Guto Penteado, proposed a shooting competition to decide who steps into the debate.

“I came up with the idea, we’re both hunters and responsible gun owners, who not go to the range and have a competition out there,” Penteado said.

The PPC plans to stream the shooting competition on Facebook.

PPC shootout in limbo following gun range decision

What’s been teased as a friendly competition between two friends, is looking for a new location after the original plan was quashed by the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.

Robert Freberg, a spokesperson for the wildlife federation, said he woke up this morning to a slew of messages and emails from members of the federation, asking him if what they heard over the weekend was actually going forward.

“We had no knowledge of this before this morning,” Freberg said.

“There was no advance notice from the PPC or the candidates.”

Freberg said before any event happens at any of the wildlife’s ranges, the board needs to be formally approached and an event needs to be proposed.

“Nothing like this happened,” he said.

“They never approached the federation about this event.”

Friesen admits he, nor his counterpart, reached out to the wildlife federation to ask if they could hold this event.

“I didn’t see it as needing to inform them,” Friesen told CTV News.

“I think the decision is wrong...I’m a member in good-standing with my membership, it’s two gentlemen that are coming together as friends in a friendly competition,” Friesen said.

The federation said neither Friesen nor Penteado are members of the wildlife federation, meaning they don’t have access to the shooting range.

Friesen said he went to the wildlife office to renew his membership, which expired in February, and said he was told the federation wasn’t going to renew it.

“I was instructed by the staff there that they were instructed by the board not to renew my membership,” he said.