Should the Green party be given a spot in telivised debates?

[warspite]

Looks like Dion's trying to gain the support of the green party now...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/18/dion-may-debate.html

Let Green leader into televised debates, Dion says
Last Updated: Thursday, January 18, 2007 | 3:18 PM ET
CBC News
Federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says his Green Party counterpart, Elizabeth May, should be allowed to take part in the televised debate during the next election campaign because of her "long experience in the issues of sustainability and the environment."

Dion was responding to reporters' questions at an Ottawa news conference called to unveil the new Liberal shadow cabinet.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May announces her party's plan at a news conference in Ottawa on Sept. 27.
(Tom Hanson/ Canadian Press) "I don't see why not," he said when asked whether May should be allowed to take part.

"I don't agree with her about everything," Dion added. "I'm pleased to be in a party that has a long experience about combining different goals. We're not a one-issue party."

May's party has been shut out of the leaders' debate, usually held in the last few weeks of a federal leadership campaign, because the Greens have never held a federal seat in Canada.

However, during the last election campaign, Green Party candidates won the votes of 664,068 Canadians. That works out to 4.5 per cent of all valid votes cast.

Continue Article

May has said those numbers prove that Canadians want to hear the party's messages about environmental and fiscal responsibility.

She and her predecessors have long lobbied a broadcast consortium comprising Canada's largest English and French television networks, including the CBC, for the right to join the leaders of the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois in the televised debates.

'Public will be enraged' if Green party shut out
"It's very critical that we be participants in the leaders' debate. I think it will be a significant factor," May said in an interview earlier this month with the Forest Newswatch newsletter. "If the Green Party is once again shut out of the debates, I think the Canadian public will be enraged. We can elect seats in the next election, and I expect we will."

The Green Party's complaints about being shut out of a 2003 Ontario leaders debate prompted an investigation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The federal broadcast regulator later ruled against the party's bid to take part.

May's supporters have set up a website (www.demanddemocraticdebates.ca) and an online petition that push for her appearance in future nationally televised leaders' debates. The site notes that the broadcast consortium invited the Bloc Québécois to participate in the debates prior to the 1993 election, even though the Bloc did not have an elected member of Parliament and did not hold official party status.

It also points out that Reform party leader Preston Manning was granted a spot in the 1993 leaders' debate, based on the Reform party winning in one riding in 1989.

'Public will be enraged' if Green party shut out

Why do I seriously doubt this....

And in related news as soon as Warspite forms WARSPITES PROGRESIVE CANADA PARTY he expects to be given a spot in the debates as well : 

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Why not let ALL party's participate. The precedent is there. The Bloc, who's platform is separation, who is there for only a single region, who's mandate is contrary to the rest of the country, is allowed, why not the rest? Their party stands for a single focus, for an idividual group and idea. So do the rest. Let 'em in. At least Layton and the rest won't get to talk as much.

 

[Shamrock]

Let the Rhinoceros Party in, too.

 

[Yrys]

Do you REALLY want to hear from ALL party ? Well, if you put Natural Law Party of Canada
in first, may be I will tune in for a fews seconds, to check if their spokeperson is
able to levitate, like they claim they can do  !

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false

    * Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
    * Bloc Québécois
    * Canadian Action Party
    * Christian Heritage Party of Canada
    * Communist Party of Canada
    * Conservative Party of Canada
    * First Peoples National Party of Canada

    * Green Party of Canada
    * Liberal Party of Canada
    * Libertarian Party of Canada
    * Marijuana Party
    * Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
    * New Democratic Party
    * Progressive Canadian Party
    * Western Block Party

People's Political Power Party of Canada

Natural Law Party of Canada

 

[Reccesoldier]

Do you REALLY want to hear from ALL party ? Well, if you put Natural Law Party of Canada
in first, may be I will tune in for a fews seconds, to check if their spokeperson is
able to levitate, like they claim they can do  !

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false

Countries that have PR give seats based on % of the popular vote.  In my opinion any party that is supported by at least 5% of the population should have its voice heard.

Democracy should be an orgy of choice, not an absence of choice, an open discussion not a closed debate.

 

[nowhere_man]

The should only have party's that have people running in all of the riding's across the country.
The Block is jut annoying they should replace them with the greens.
Not that my heart would break if they just got rid of the Block and didn't replace them with anyone.

 

[rmacqueen]

The should only have party's that have people running in all of the riding's across the country.
The Block is jut annoying they should replace them with the greens.
Not that my heart would break if they just got rid of the Block and didn't replace them with anyone.

Have to agree, if a party can field a candidate in all riding's then they should be allowed in the debates as that makes them a true national party.  The precedent was set with the Bloc so why not the greens?

 

[Hunter]

Do you REALLY want to hear from ALL party ? Well, if you put Natural Law Party of Canada
in first, may be I will tune in for a fews seconds, to check if their spokeperson is
able to levitate, like they claim they can do  !

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false

I remember a past election (1997?) where one of the NLPC members got his 15 seconds of fame demonstrating their 'yogic flying' as they call it.  The guy took his shoes & socks off, sat down in the lotus position, crossed his arms like on I Dream of Genie, and then by swinging his arms and body managed to lift his body off the ground a couple of inches and forward maybe 6 inches at a time.  In a series of 4 or 5 of these little hops he moved forward maybe 2 feet, then turned around and hopped back.  He was trying to explain that if we all did this at the same time it would put the world in 'harmonic balance' or some BS like that.  I suppose he would have gone on a while longer, but the reporter started to laugh and that was that.

I agree that the Greens should be included in the federal election debates, although I think they need to work on developing their policy platform a bit more in areas other than the environment.  It has taken a long time for them to gain traction in Canada, they first ran candidates in federal elections in 1984.  I would love to see the Blocheads booted off the stage and their spot given to the green party.  If a party does not have national representation, it should not be in the federal debate.  

IMNHO.

 

[a_majoor]

I agree with the proposition that democracy needs to be an orgy of choice, but the large number of marginal parties would make a national televised debate something of a nightmare.

However, many posters have suggested that the defining question is weather there is national representation or not, which gives me an idea: rather than concentrate on a national leadership debate, the media should be encouraged to host riding debates with all candidate running in the riding. Thiis would raise the profile of individual MP's and candidates, and reduce the idea of the centralization of power (after all, Steven Harper can't help me directly, my MP sits for London North Centre [although as a Liberal MP, I'm not sure how much help I would get anyway]). Since first past the post means the elected representative represents YOU (not the party to you), this will also help reconnect the government to the people in the long run as people associate their member with the government rather than the leader.

While this is a bit of a streach (the MSM lives for sound bites, not reasoned debate), we have enough members across Canada to make something like this happen. How difficult would it be to write the editor of the local newspaper, call the radio stations and TV stations, or for non serving members, organize a taxpayers association and host a riding debate (with invitations to local press, bloggers etc?). The smaller parties would agree since they want and need exposure, and if the bigger parties refuse to participate it makes them look bad, so a win win situation for the voters.

 

[Mike Baker]

Insted of all those parties, why not have just four or five? It would be easier, an I do know they all support different things. Either that or we let Tess in control of the country 

 

[hotelquebec9er]

It is very hard to call the Green Party "marginal" @ 10% polling, when the NDP gets very little more (16-18%).

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

IIRC since this country does not run on popular vote by number of seats (yet) the Green Party is not even a factor. The NDP has seats the Green party does not.

 

[GO!!!]

If the Greens want a debate, perhaps there could be two debates - one for the NDP, the Greens, the BQ and all the other marginal parties, in which they could all present their narrow platforms and argue about them.

Then there could be a real debate from the parties that have given consideration to things like foreign policy, taxes, defence, inter-governmental affairs and relations with the US.

The last thing the leaders debate needs is clowns like May and Layton diverting attention from the real issues with jingoistic bleating about their cause du jour.

We have two parties capable of running this nation, and a dozen or so who define themselves by opposition to whoever is in power at the time. Let there be two levels of debate as well.

 

[rmacqueen]

IIRC since this country does not run on popular vote by number of seats (yet) the Green Party is not even a factor. The NDP has seats the Green party does not.

The Bloc was included in the debates before they had any seats

 

[Edward Campbell]

The Bloc was included in the debates before they had any seats

If I'm not mistaken (and I often am) the BQ had seats from the moment of it inception.  If I recall, back in 1990, Lucien Bouchard led a half dozen Québec Tories and a couple/few Liberals (notably Jean Lapierre) out of their caucuses and into the newly minted BQ, while Parliament was still in session.

The next election wasn't until 1993 and the apple cart was roundly upset when Jean Chrétien's Liberals won and Bouchard's BQ won a stunning 50+ seats in Québec and formed the official opposition in Parliament.

 

[eerickso]

Honestly, I don't understand what Dion hopes to gain by inviting the Greens. The Liberals have a longer history of ignoring global warmer than the Conservatives. The Liberals always demonstrate with frightening efficiency their ability to change tack when political winds shift. Some people think this is their most redeeming quality I, however, believe it is immoral.

I will be voting Green because my first chose for MP is unlikely to win and I believe it is important that the Greens remain an official party.

 

[rmacqueen]

If I'm not mistaken (and I often am) the BQ had seats from the moment of it inception.  If I recall, back in 1990, Lucien Bouchard led a half dozen Québec Tories and a couple/few Liberals (notably Jean Lapierre) out of their caucuses and into the newly minted BQ, while Parliament was still in session.

Technically, no.  They were not recognized as an official party as none had been elected as Bloc members.