The Leader Debates: Canadian Democracy in Crisis!

We won this one! Grass-roots public pressure forced the other leaders to reverse their stand. Congratulations! See links to news stories at http://cosbeygreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/leader-debates-win-for-grass-roots.html.

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A Consortium of Canada's leading broadcasting networks announced on Monday 08Sep that Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will not be included in the leaders' debates. The Consortium based their decision on the position taken by three political parties who said that they would not participate in the televised leaders debates if the Green Party was included.

Whether or not you support the Green Party, please take this attack on our already beleaguered democratic system seriously!

Already outraged? Click here to jump to my action guide! Or, read on.

Historically, parties that have had less standing than the Green Party of Canada have routinely been included in the Leader debates.

One in every 22 Canadians voters in the last federal election - 660,000 voters - voted Green. The Green Party has ranked third in numerous polls this year. The Green Party has a Member of Parliament, as a result of independent MP Blair Wilson joining the Greens in late August. The Green Party ran a full slate of candidates in the last two federal elections.

The Bloc Québecois was included in the 1988 debates despite having no seats in Parliament, no official recognition from the Speaker and only 75 candidates out of 295 ridings. The Reform Party was included in the 1993 debates despite having won only 276,000 votes and no seats in the previous election, and having only a single Member of Parliament at the time of the debates - as the result of a by-election. Yet the Bloc and the successor to the Reform party are both now sabotaging the democratic process by blocking Elizabeth May and the Green Party from the debates. Incredibly, so is the NDP!

My view:

• The Bloc, the Conservatives, and the NDP are all making a radical attack on Canadian democracy, by attempting to disenfranchise a party that represents over half a million Canadians. This is a direct attack on you, the Canadian voter. These parties do not deserve your vote!
• The media consortium made the wrong decision. They should have called the bluff of these rogue political parties. If any of them had continued obstinate in their position, the media would have been doing a great service to the Canadian public by dramatically highlighting their absence from the debates as an unwillingness to participate in the free democratic process.
  

More: I've posted additional background information, links, and suggested actions in the first 7 comments to this post.

Please comment! Please send your friends a link to this blog entry! Please act to put pressure on these wrong-headed politicians and on the media consortium.