Green Party Leader Not Included In Debates

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May Not Welcome In Leaders' Debates: Networks
Green Party leader slams 'high-handed attempt to shut down democracy'
CBC News Posted: Mar 29, 2011 6:09 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 29, 2011 11:38 PM ET

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says she's shocked by a decision to exclude her from the televised party leaders' debates but determined to take part.

"This is an unacceptable, outrageous, high-handed attempt to shut down democracy in this country," May told CBC News.

May said the decision was made by a group of people with no set rules or criteria.

"I’m really in shock. I thought this matter was settled and I think most Canadians thought it was settled."

She questioned how a party like the Bloc Québécois — which only fields candidates in Quebec — can be included, but her party, with candidates in each riding, is shut out of the debate.

The broadcast consortium is made up of representatives from CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, Global and TVA.

Spokesman Marco Dubé confirmed the group decided unanimously that a formal proposal will only be made to the leaders of recognized parties in the House of Commons — Conservative, Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois.

"The representation of parties in the House was one important factor, but we're not going to give more information on the other criteria," Dubé said.

"This is a programming decision. The Broadcasting Act is clear: the decision on the leader's debates is a broadcast consortium decision."

The consortium will be presenting proposals on debate formats to the four parties this week, he said.

May was initially excluded from the debates in the 2008 election, but a public outcry forced other party leaders to agree to her participation.

She said Tuesday that she is "absolutely determined" to take part this time and would consider legal action. But she also called on Canadians to contact the broadcasters to allow her to participate.

Ignatieff wants 1-on-1 debate with Harper
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said he believes May should be included in the debate, but added he'd also like to have a one-on-one debate with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

The Conservative Party said it would accept the consortium's decision and believes May is "fully capable of arguing her own case."

Meanwhile, NDP campaign spokeswoman Kathleen Monk said that her party is "fine" with May being in the debate and that there should be clear criteria for who is allowed to participate.

“We believe in open debates that are based on consistent and understood rules," Monk said in a statement. "We support consistent criteria that outlines who is included and why.

"If certain leaders are not invited to participate, I think it is reasonable for them to know why."

May is running in the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, just outside Victoria, against Tory Gary Lunn, the Conservative government's minister of state for amateur sport.

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@djjd62,

it's interesting that one Leader (Duceppe) is included when he doesn't represent a National Party, he represents a regional Party who wants to make his Province a separate country

if i had my way Mr. Duceppe wouldn't be allowed in the country let alone the debates

1 Reply

Notice how quiet I am able to be about Canadian politics.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

feel free to chime in

politics is worldwide spectator sport

1 Reply

@djjd62,

I have no opinions qua Canadian politics,
which is good since I am IGNORANT thereof, as the imposter woud put it.

David

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

you'd fit in with most of Canada then, 4 elections in about 7 years have left us rather underwhelmed with the whole thing

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

and we've got way more parties to you dislike, not just liberals but socialists, separatists, environmental wackjobs

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Yeah, agreed. It really is two-faced.

Apparently, the Greens got about a million popular votes in the last election.

I'm going to boycott the debate anyways.

Even though I don't vote Green, I think the party should be included. It's legitatmit.

This topic was discussed on CKNW here last night. It upsets a number of people.

I hope this decision backfires.

1 Reply

@Reyn,

i can't say i've ever watched a debate myself, i've gone to some local debates, actually after one provincial debate i went attended, i voted for the university kid who was running for the communist party, he buried the other candidates (in the debates at least, i don't think his vote count even registered a %)

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Well, it remains obvious we really only continue to have a 2 party system.

Folks are, for the most part, persisting on only voting either Conservatives or Liberals. Sad

[blah!]

0 Replies

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

and we've got way more parties to you dislike, not just liberals but socialists, separatists, environmental wackjobs

I am indifferent qua "separatists"; in regard to the others:
I simply, sadly know that it is your country and its up to u to decide what to do with it.

I 'm put in mind of when I was 13 years old, I was befriended by
my next door nabor, Joe, an Italian a few months younger than I was,
who lamented to me that his father ofen insulted him and beat him.
Accordingly, I suggested considerations of self-defense
whereupon, he turned around 18O degrees, and declared
(to my surprize): "he's my father and he has a RIGHT to hit me." That was the end of that.

Thereafter (figuratively speaking) I was a witness to this
(not that I actually saw it happen) in that I heard a lot of yelling
coming from next door and (from Joe), I knew what was going on,
but I was 1OO% powerless to do anything about it.

(I did not wish to interfere by calling the police.)

Similarly, if I hear about a foreign country making questionable political decisions,
I know that it falls to me to mind my own business and keep my mouth shut, tho I feel sad about it.

David

0 Replies

@djjd62,

djjd62's source wrote:

Meanwhile, NDP campaign spokeswoman Kathleen Monk said that her party is "fine" with May being in the debate and that there should be clear criteria for who is allowed to participate.

“We believe in open debates that are based on consistent and understood rules," Monk said in a statement. "We support consistent criteria that outlines who is included and why.

"If certain leaders are not invited to participate, I think it is reasonable for them to know why."

The NDP also believes in proportional representation ... so perhaps that principle should apply here? Canada could allot speaking time to each party in proportion to that party's percentage of the vote in the previous election. The Conservatives and the Liberals would each get 90 seconds to respond to every question; the NDP would get half as long; and the Greens would get their meaningless 5-second sound-byte.

1 Reply

@Oylok,

You used to work for the Pendergast machine, right?

0 Replies

@djjd62,

http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/results.html

I think one of the things the 'biggies' are worried about is that the Green Party was the only party that made gains in the 2006/2008 split. Everyone else dropped in the popular vote.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

ok, it helps if you read the analysis a bit

Quote:

The main factor in Conservative success was acutally a big drop in turnout among Liberal supporters. While the Green Party managed to split the Conservative's opposition by capturing a number of defecting Liberals and NDPers, the Conservatives benefited even more from the hundreds of thousands of disenchanted Liberals who simply stayed home on election day. The Conservatives picked up 11 seats in Ontario with an impressive gain in popular vote from 35 to 48%. However, the Conservatives won hardly any more votes in Ontario compared to 2006. Their gain in vote share came about because 500,000 Ontario voters went AWOL between the two elections, most of them Liberal, leaving the Conservative candidates better supported in comparison. The Conservatives were not able to capitalize on the drop in Bloc support across Quebec, because they received 120,000 fewer votes in that province themselves. The only province where the Conservatives made many gains thanks to a substantial increase in votes was British Columbia.

One winner in the 2008 election appears to be the Green Party, which is the only party to have increased its actual number of votes in the face of a large decline in turnout. Green votes grew by a substantial 273,545. Of course, that growth in support did not result in a single Green candidate's election.

doh

1 Reply

Didn't this happen the last go-round? I'm pretty sure the Green party was included as a result of some uproar about it. It IS insulting, and I agree that if any party should be excluded, it'd be the Bloc-heads.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

doh

I think that shoud be spelled: DUH.

Its not an O sound.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

It is if you're Homer Simpson

2 Replies

@Mame,

O.

David

0 Replies

@Mame,

Agreed!

0 Replies

Green Party Leader Not Included In Debates

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