Green Party of Canada - Media Release
Ottawa, Dec. 14 - More than 660,000 Canadians voted for the Green Party in the last federal election and the latest public opinion polls show that the Green vote will be in the millions in the next election.
With its historic second-place finish in the recent London North Centre by-election, beating both the Conservative and NDP candidates, the Green Party confirmed its status as the fastest growing political party in Canada.
But party leader Elizabeth May is not yet allowed to participate in the leaders' debates during the upcoming general election which will likely be called early in the new year.
"Voters have a right to hear where all the major parties stand on the issues," Ms. May said today. "That's one of the cornerstones of democracy - an informed electorate. The continued exclusion of the Green Party from the leaders' debates is an affront to democracy in Canada."
DemandDemocraticDebates.ca is a national e-mail petition campaign aimed at the broadcast consortium - a group of TV network executives who control the debate content, format and which leaders get to participate. The DemandDemocraticDebates.ca website gives Canadians the opportunity to send a message directly to these decision-makers, adding their voice to an online petition demanding the Green Party leader's inclusion in the next leaders' debates.
According to Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley: "Canadians today draw their electoral information primarily from television . . . The public broadcast of a debate held by several leaders of registered political parties is not a contribution to the parties but the provision of a service to the public."
The Green Party's popular support has earned it the right to be included in the debates.
"It's a ludicrous situation," said Green Party Deputy Leader Adriane Carr. "Every Canadian voter had the opportunity to vote Green in the last two elections. Their tax dollars support us. Our popular support is virtually tied with the Bloc Quebecois'. Canadians deserve to hear from our leader. Besides, including a woman with the debating skills of Elizabeth May would liven up the debates for everyone," concluded Carr.
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Press conference picked up.
A good sign of changes to come is that reporters from various print media publications, including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, have picked up this issue. Will the broadcasters take note?
I also found the article Liberals and Greens trade praise by Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star to be interesting. I have been observing that the Greens tend to take more votes from the NDP and what was previously the Progressive Conservatives (Who have historically been far closer to the Greens than any other party in Canada). It may be that the Liberals are noticing this, and think that the Greens can take votes from both the extreme left and the extreme right better than they can, allowing them to use the antiquated first past the post system and win.
It will be interesting to see if this will backfire on the Liberals, seeing Greens take seats that might otherwise have been Liberal.
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) consultant.
Efforts Best Spent Elsewhere
Re: Online Petition to get Green Leader into TV Debates - a bit of a wasted effort, since in the past broadcasters have ignored such petitions. They will unfortunately do the same for this one. But why campaign so strongly for access to scraps when you can go for a seat at the banquet itself? I am really surprised that there aren't more Greens working towards reforming the unfair electoral system that disenfranchises them to start with, and instead an incredible number that try to convince people they should be let into TV debates every election. Yes they should, but so what? Convince as many people of this as you want but the media cartels aren't a democracy, and don't have to listen. No matter how many petitions are done.
Why not educate people where it really counts - like going to an Ontario Citizen's Assembly meeting on electoral reform and making a presentation. Or convincing people to vote Yes in the probable resulting referendum on changing our electoral system in 2007. Or likewise the BC referendum in 2009. Or in the current Quebec electoral reform process. All are looking at mixed proportional representation systems as the alternative to our broken system, one in which a 6% level of the popular vote for the Green Party would get them about 18 seats in the House of Commons. Not just a measly debate slot.
WE ARE HAVING REFERENDUMS ON ELECTORAL REFORM IN SOME OF OUR LARGEST PROVINCES - if passed, the writing would be on the wall for the federal system to change as well. Why aren't the Greens campaigning tooth & nail for this instead? That's where it would really make a difference. There are over 10,000 Green Party members across Canada, and not even a sixth of them are members of these nonprofit organizations who are desperate for help:
Fair Vote Canada (only $10 to join)
Fair Voting BC
Mouvement pour une Democratie Nouvelle (only $15 to join)
Fair Vote Ontario (only $10 to join)
Citizen2Citizen (Ontario referendum discussion forum)
Re: Liberals & Greens Trade Compliments - it's true that the Greens historically siphon votes from the NDP and progressive Conservatives, but now with the election of Stephane Dion the Liberals might be just as likely to take votes away from the Greens.