Well, we are into the “promise the sun and stars” phase of the election campaigns. But I will get to that in another posting. I was reading about something this week that needs to be addressed first. We are in a campaign where not every recognized political party in Canada is treated equal. Somewhere a decision was made by the broadcasters that not everyone is equal in this election. Exactly when was a consortium, composed of five broadcast executives, ordained with the right to determine which Canadian political parties should participate in the leaders' debate? How dare they? Shouldn't the voters of Canada have the right to listen to every party who has a point to make? Especially a party, like the Green Party, that has a candidate in every riding in Canada. Who made them the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise group to decide who and what should be included?
Some may say that since they are not an official party they shouldn't be included. To be an official party you must have 12 seats in parliament. This can't be the reason. Equally, since 1993, the NDP, Bloc Québecois, the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform Party have all been invited to participate in the debate without holding official party status. In fact, in 1993 the Reform Party held only one seat and the Bloc was not officially recognized in the House of Commons, its members and only elected MP sat as independents. The Bloc, with only 75 candidates, participates in both the English and French debates, despite the fact that voters in 233 predominantly English-speaking ridings cannot even vote for their candidates.
And then some may argue that the debates are not that important anyway. Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris has other thoughts. Here are some of his quotes on this matter. "Do Canadians really believe that five executives meeting on a conference call should arbitrarily decide the political choices for over 22 million voters?" He then added "The importance of the leaders' debate cannot be overstated. There is widespread agreement that televised leaders’ debates are defining moments in Canadian elections. The latest Ipsos-Reid poll shows support for the federal Green Party at 5 per cent federally and 14 per cent in B.C. Based on these polls, over 640,000 Canadians are ready to vote for the Green Party. To these and other Canadians, the consortium is saying, your issues and concerns will not be debated.“
The question of time constraints and the number of participants has also been mentioned as the reason for not including the party. Well unfortunately this can't be the reason that the broadcasters don't want to include the Green Party. You see, since 1993 there has been 5 parties included in the leaders' debates. This year there are only 4 parties invited. Inviting the Green Party to the debate would only fill an existing seat. So what gives? Maybe it is time for the CRTC to get involved. It is their duty as the federal regulator of everything radio and television in this country to say that the broadcasters don't have the right to chose who we can and can't listen to...especially when it comes to something as important as the running of our country for the next 4 to 5 years.
I think that the consortium's decision to exclude the Green Party and other registered parties discourages voter participation. It’s clear that voters want to see more and hear more of the other alternatives to the big 4 parties. In the last election, over 8.2 million voters disapproved of the political choices available to them and instead chose "none-of-the-above" by not voting. Polls indicate that the alternative parties draw the most support from voters between the ages of 18 and 35. This is also the demographic least likely to vote based on the 2000 returns. These are also the same Canadians who feel particularly disenchanted with the old-line parties and are willing to listen to what the alternatives have to say. So I say give all parties a chance to speak their points in front of a national audience at the same time as every other party gets to make their points. If they are given a chance to speak and what they say doesn't make sense then the Canadian voters can show them at election time. This should go for all parties. Are you listening voters of Ontario and Quebec?
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