Editorial – John Deverell, Catch 22 team
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Elizabeth May, whose Green Party attracts nearly one million votes, is not legally entitled to appear in the televised leaders debate. The federal court couldn’t invent such a law, and Parliament has never offered one.
OTTAWA — A federal appeal court judge has dismissed the Green party’s attempts to quickly hear legal arguments over the party’s participation in the televised leaders debate, meaning Green leader Elizabeth May is unlikely to be able to participate next week…. Only the leaders of the four major parties have been invited to participate.
Still, the fact that one million Green voters have no representative in Parliament, and thus no presumed right to debate on television, sticks in the craw. It just won’t slide down easily, especially for those who know that the TV-approved “big four” parties are subsidized to the tune of 85 per cent by the general taxpayer.
If Canada is a democracy, as all four TV-approved leaders maintain, then it is a democracy dominated by a self-dealing political cartel.
A remaining question is whether, well before April 12, any member of the cartel will break ranks and let the Green Party into the TV debate. It would require some courage and principles, but that’s what leaders are supposed to have. In the name of free speech and democracy, one or more of them would have to threaten to leave his TV debate seat vacant unless Elizabeth May is allowed to share the cameras.
The TV executives might let Gilles Duceppe or Jack Layton swing in the wind if they alone tried to put democracy ahead of party interest. The corporate executives would probably can the debate or make room for Ms May, however, if the threatened empty chair belonged to Stephen Harper or Michael Ignatieff –the two most likely claimants for the PMO.
So for the next few days let’s play Who’s The Democrat? Michael? Stephen? Neither?