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September 09, 2008

NDP and Tories should be embarrassed by the Green Party shutout

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 12:21 PM ET

The decision not to allow Green Party leader Elizabeth May into the upcoming leaders' debates is a shame. As I wrote last week, while there are legitimate reasons for progressives of all stripes to be wary of the Greens' boat-rocking on the centre-left, including them is the right thing to do.

The Green Party has hired Toronto-based lawyer Peter Rosenthal and will deploy him against the networks, but as the Law is Cool blog points out today, political parties haven't found the courts sympathetic in the past when they tried to sue their way into the studio. Both the National Party of Canada and the Natural Law Party tried and failed on that count. The Greens have more credibility than those two fringe parties, but the courts are very leery of mandating what private media should and should not cover, and it seems the party will make little progress on that front.

Now, suddenly, the Greens are enjoying widespread and sympathetic media coverage (like this blog post, of course) because of this unpopular decision by the broadcasters. And the decision by the Conservatives and the NDP to peevishly boycott a Green-inclusive debate is unbecoming for both. The current uproar over the mechanics of the debate and who's-boycotting-who is just a distraction from a real discussion of envrionmental policy which is desperately needed, and formally including the Greens in that discussion is a no-brainer.

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Reader comments:

Thanks for the mention!

Posted by: Omar Ha-Redeye at September 9, 2008 01:04 PM

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While they may for the most part be private broadcasters (the publicly funded CBC is also a part of the consortium), we are talking about the public airwaves, which the broadcasters DO NOT OWN. They belong to we, the people.

It's a complete sham that nine rich men (including 3 party leaders) conspiring out of site in back rooms can decide which views Canadians are and are not allowed to hear during an election. Jack Layton has proven he's no different than Stephen Harper - a power hungry hypocrite fearful of upsetting the apple cart that has fed them both so well. This 'if I can't have my way I will take my ball and go home' approach to the possibility of May's inclusion is childish. May represents a party that regularly polls around 9%. Over 600,000 people voted Green last time, and even using the 4.5% of the popular vote they got in the last election as a barometer there are now potentially over 1 million Green votes out there. I'd bet that number increases after this debaucle. I know my vote just went from yellow (NDP) to Green.

So much for democracy in Canada!

Posted by: Jannie Roulston at September 9, 2008 04:41 PM

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Jack might want to rethink his response.

Don Martin has already declared Elizabeth May the winner of the debate.

Posted by: Steve at September 9, 2008 05:09 PM

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77% of Canadian polled by a recognized pollster have stated they want Elizabeth May in the debates! But because Harper started whining and crying that "it wasn't fair" to let the only female national party leader play in the old boys sandbox, and bluffing that he would not show up, the network consortium pretends to believe him as a face saving camouflage. That way they can blame the political parties for their democratic/ethical and ratings failure while hiding their true intent of manipulating the election for their political masters.

The network consortium should not have stupidly asked "permission" from the parties as to whether their main competitor, the ONLY party showing real and consistent growth in the polls should be allowed in. They should just ANNOUNCE who is invited and let the chips fall where they MAY. That's their job.

Canadians are not so stupid as to believe the consortiums lies that the other political parties would have allowed MAY to have the podium to herself. And IF any of the non green parties did that, it would demonstrate the utter mindlessness of a political paradigm where the fleeing party would rather run than face a battle of ideas in an open forum. Who would show, had the consortium thrown down the gauntlet, would be the acid test of who was more serious about democracy, than their party self interest.

Posted by: Constantine Kritsonis at September 9, 2008 10:21 PM

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