[1Peg]

kenmore kenmore:

Well come now! She is the environment party. An Albertan sure as hell woudn't want her debating the oil sands would he???

ta-geule toi même!

An Albertan would like her to at least hold ONE seat before she participates in any leaders debate.

[Scape]

I'm with Rex on this. 1 hour of one on one debates between the leaders not have some consortium of the media designate who should talk.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

She's got HUGE tracts of land.

[andyt]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

She's got HUGE tracts of land.

Let's keep things decent, OK? I don't care to hear about the physical attributes of any of the leaders, thank you veddy much.

[kenmore]

1Peg 1Peg:

kenmore kenmore:

Well come now! She is the environment party. An Albertan sure as hell woudn't want her debating the oil sands would he???

ta-geule toi même!

An Albertan would like her to at least hold ONE seat before she participates in any leaders debate.

Nope! she doesn't need to have a seat. She is the leader of a legitimate party in Canada and has every right to participate and be heard. Its only the harper tories who don't believe in democracy in the true sense of the word.

[dino_bobba_renno]

kenmore kenmore:

1Peg 1Peg:

kenmore kenmore:

Well come now! She is the environment party. An Albertan sure as hell woudn't want her debating the oil sands would he???

ta-geule toi même!

An Albertan would like her to at least hold ONE seat before she participates in any leaders debate.

Nope! she doesn't need to have a seat. She is the leader of a legitimate party in Canada and has every right to participate and be heard. Its only the harper tories who don't believe in democracy in the true sense of the word.

I kind of think the Liberals would be better off trying to leave her out. They maybe wouldn’t want to come out vocally against her involvement but they could tone down their support a little. You’ve all ready got the NDP splitting the vote on the left you really don’t need one more.

Besides, of all the parties out there Liberals should inherently be in the best position to capitalize on the “green” vote. They have all ways been very supportive of green initiatives and have pretty good credibility over all on past environmental issues. Some might argue that the NDP has historically been more green friendly but most people realize that they don’t stand a very good chance of ever bringing their ideas to fruition.

Over all I’m surprised that the Libs haven’t done more to champion those issues and are so willing to share those voters with the Greens.

[Bodah]

kenmore kenmore:

Nope! she doesn't need to have a seat. She is the leader of a legitimate party in Canada and has every right to participate and be heard. Its only the harper tories who don't believe in democracy in the true sense of the word.

Ken mon vieux.

You do realize that there are about 6 other parties out there that haven't one a seat. With that do you believe these people should be included in the debates as well ?

Also, I don't know where your getting this info but Harper has nothing to do with the decision. It's a collective decision agreed upon by ALL the networks, CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV etc.

Are you telling us know that Harper has an agent working in the highest echelons of CBC and Radio-Canada ? Really ?

I'm glad they booted May off alot more needs to be done to make them real debates, I like Rex's idea mentioned above of how the debates should run. That would be real debates. As it stands now they're not even worth watching.
I don't plan to watch them.

[bootlegga]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Based on May's whining, the leaders of the Communist Party of Canada, the Christian Heritage Party, the Animal Alliance party, the Canadian Action Party, the Communist Party of Canada(Marxist-Leninist), the First Peoples National Party, the Libertarian Party, the Marijuana Party and the Progressive Canadian Party should all be given a chance to debate. Like the Green Party, they are federally registered parties, who haven't won a seat in parliament.

You forgot the Pirate party!

[bootlegga]

hurley_108 hurley_108:

xerxes xerxes:

Stupid. She has more right to be there than the Bloc does.

Based on what? What makes her deserving, Duceppe not, and, say, Ron Gray of the Christian Heritage party not? They ran 59 candidates in 9 provinces.

Sure, they only got 0.19% of the popular vote to the Greens' 6.78%, but any criteria based on popular vote will be arbitrary and given that these figures are almost common knowledge in politically knowledgeable circles, and any figure will be arbitrary and difficult to come to without bias.

The fact is that the NDP, Bloc, Liberals and Conservatives all elect MPs. The Green party has yet to elect an MP or re-elect a floor-crosser. It's an arbitrary standard, but it's one they managed to meet at least once, and were granted inclusion based on it. I don't see any problem holding them to the same standard twice.

If they want in again, they have up to 308 MPs to work on. If the environment was such an enormous deal as they think it is, they should be able to flip at least one. If they can't, then that speaks to their fringe nature and unworthiness to be in the debate.

Well said!

[xerxes]

Those are good points Hurley. I would say that 7% isn't statistically insignificant out of an electorate of about 33 mil. But I still feel that if the Bloc has aright to be there, a party whose main rationale for existence is to only represent Quebec and only runs candidates in Quebec, the then Greens have a right to be there too.

Or course, it looks as though I'm in the minority on this one...

[Bodah]

xerxes xerxes:

Those are good points Hurley. I would say that 7% isn't statistically insignificant out of an electorate of about 33 mil. But I still feel that if the Bloc has aright to be there, a party whose main rationale for existence is to only represent Quebec and only runs candidates in Quebec, the then Greens have a right to be there too.

Or course, it looks as though I'm in the minority on this one...

Nah... I don't think your the minority.

At the very least the debate should end with a one hour debate on no more than tree topics between the two contending leaders.

Since the rest of the leaders don't stand a chance at that point of becoming the Prime Minister of Canada anyways, fuck'em.

[QBC]

I think the bloc should be excluded from the federal election let alone the debate. A party should only be able to run federally if they have candidates running in at least 50% of the riding's in every province.

As for the subject at hand. I don't agree that only the top two parties should be allowed to attend the debate, that leaves out too high a percentage of the population who doesn't go along with their policies and view point, but we shouldn't allow every fringe party in either. I feel the Green party is a fringe party, even with 7% popularity, they don't really have a national policy for everything a contender for the government should have. The NDP needs to be there if just to keep the other two a little more honest. (If that's even possible in a room full of the biggest liars in the country, pollute-icians)

[Bacardi4206]

xerxes xerxes:

Those are good points Hurley. I would say that 7% isn't statistically insignificant out of an electorate of about 33 mil. But I still feel that if the Bloc has aright to be there, a party whose main rationale for existence is to only represent Quebec and only runs candidates in Quebec, the then Greens have a right to be there too.

Or course, it looks as though I'm in the minority on this one...

No you're not alone, IMO I still think May should not be in that debate but I do think she has more right to be in it than the Bloc. A parties main interest in regards to a single province and those in it taking part in a political debate about Canada just doesn't sit well.

Regarding Kenmore, I stubbed my toe on my desk this morning. Please blame Harper for me. Thanks.

[QBC]

Bacardi4206 Bacardi4206:

Regarding Kenmore, I stubbed my toe on my desk this morning. Please blame Harper for me. Thanks.

That bastard.... That's what going to happen to us all if he gets a majority government you know.....I'm going to make a fortune selling steel toed slippers

[romanP]

Here's my problem with this situation:

Elizabeth May isn't allowed into the debates because her party doesn't hold a seat in Parliament. But she doesn't hold a seat in Parliament because the electoral system is rigged to always elect the same parties in some sort of similar configuration with the NDP and Bloc always grasping at power and never getting it, and the Liberals and Conservatives switching places every once in a while. Anybody who tries to get their foot in the door gets their foot stomped on by the people who already share the privilege of being guaranteed at least a few seats in Parliament. One of the most important tools to gaining seats in Parliament is deemed inaccessible to those who do not already hold seats in Parliament.