OTTAWA — Now that Green Leader Elizabeth May has locked up a spot in the leaders' debates, the Animal Alliance Environment Voters party wants in.

Parties from the margins of Canada's political spectrum are celebrating May's flight from the fringe to the front line of federal politics.

They're also clamouring for a place of their own at the big podium.

Liz White of the Animal Alliance Environment Voters party -- which attracted a total of 72 votes 2006 -- said May's invitation is great news, especially for parties like the Greens that have never elected a single MP under their banner.

"I think it's fantastic," she said. "It's incredibly inspiring and I think it begins to give hope to other smaller parties."

The TV networks announced Monday that May was not welcome at the debates because some leaders opposed her participation.

It was later revealed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton had threatened to boycott the event if May was invited.

A coast-to-coast public outcry for May's inclusion and contempt for the parties who kept her out helped force Layton to back down on Wednesday.

Harper quickly followed and so did the consortium, which is made up of CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, Global and TVA.

White, who is running in Toronto-Centre on a campaign focused on improving animal welfare, said the consortium didn't backtrack far enough.

She said every party should take part in the televised debates.

"I don't think it's fair," White said.

With the Greens in, the leader of the Christian Heritage party says there's no more excuses to keep him out.

Ron Gray said he's preparing a formal request to demand that the TV networks consortium running the debates open the door.

"The parties that are in the House are treating it like a private fiefdom, they're trying to pull up the drawbridge behind them and exclude other parties and new ideas," Gray said Thursday from his home in Langley, B.C.

His faith-based party, which opposes abortion and believes homosexuality can be cured, will run more than 60 candidates in the election. The party drew over 28,000 votes in the last election.

The leader of the sixth-largest party in Canada thinks his chances of getting on the tube are pretty good.

"A democracy requires an informed electorate," Gray said. "To pre-empt the voter's decision by excluding one important voice is anti-democratic."

Marijuana party leader Blair T. Longley said grassroots parties have repeatedly been snuffed out when it comes to debates.

"It's so unfair it goes off the scale," he said.

"We've been complaining forever and ever. Marijuana Party candidates are routinely excluded from debates, all over the place, all the time."

Longley said the Green party was only slightly bigger than his spliff-smoking group as recently as 2000.

But the Green party's status has spiked since it went "mainstream," he said.

In 2004, the Greens qualified for federal funding after earning more than two-per-cent of the popular vote.

In the meantime, Longley said the Marijuana Party, which is dedicated to the legalization of pot, and its "broken shoestring budget" has burned out.

Parties that get beyond two per cent of all votes cast receive $1.75 for every ballot cast in their favour.

"If you're below the two-per-cent (threshold), you're nothing," Longley said.

Without the same access to funding, he said the party will be lucky to get a dozen candidates after fielding 70 in 2004.

"What's left of the Marijuana party is the radical rump of marijuana militants that have no money and don't want to go mainstream anyway." said Longley, who ran for the Greens in 1984.