Excluding Greens from debate is immoral: political scientist
Posted March 30, 2011 12:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A political scientist says there are many reasons why the Greens should be included in the TV debate.
The Green Party earned nearly a million votes in the last election. Dennis Pilon with the University of Victoria says many of those supporters are young, which makes them a very rare kind of voter.
“What are we doing here? I mean, we are basically consigning a generation of potential voters to the dust heap,” he argues. “So for all sorts of reasons – I think moral, strategic, pragmatic – I think the Greens should be part of this debate.”
“I think to cut the Greens out of the debate would be immoral,” he adds. “We have a problem now with young people not participating in our elections, and yet we know they disproportionately support the Green Party.”
He says the televised debate is an election institution and inclusion should not be at the sole decision of TV broadcasters.
May speaks out
Elizabeth May is appealing to voters and to the courts in her bid to get into the federal leaders debate.
The Green Party leader says the decision by the media consortium to exclude her has pinched her local campaign to win a seat in the Saanich-Gulf Islands. She says she can’t commit to any events, in case she does actually get the chance to participate in the debate.
May has hired a lawyer, and she is appealing to Canadians to argue her case, saying Greens got one million votes in the last election, and a bigger percentage of the popular vote than all of the other smaller parties combined.
The Green Party will run a candidate in each of Canada’s 308 ridings.
During a press conference earlier today, May wondered if Stephen Harper told the broadcast consortium to exclude her, and that is why she is not in.
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Elizabeth May belongs in the debate. “I’ve been clear right out of the gate: Mrs. May belongs in the debate. But I’m pretty keen to go toe-to-toe with Mr. Harper, because I think that is the main event.”
May says the media consortium needs to take into consideration what is in the public’s interest. “Can you as a group of network executives live with yourself when you have interfered with the electoral process by actually telling Canadians that one party doesn’t count?”
May adds she hopes to get a court ruling on her exclusion before the TV debate takes place.
