By Arthur Weinreb
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
We are moving ever closer to a federal election, if for no other reason than time tends to move in one direction and we'll have to go to the polls sometime. As has been the case in recent years, a debate is now ensuing about whether or not Canadian political parties, other than the Fab Four, will be allowed to participate in the televised debates that will be scheduled when the election formally gets underway.
No doubt we are fast approaching the preferable dates for an early summer as opposed to a fall election so with breathless anticipation, the debate about who should be allowed to debate has begun. In a column in Monday's Toronto Star, Chantal Hbert made the all too predictable pitch that Green Party leader Elizabeth May should be allowed to participate in the political version of Canadian Idol; the debates that are proof positive that politics is indeed showbiz for the ugly.
Out of all of the political parties that exist in Canada, most of them virtually unknown outside of their own membership, the Green Party should be allowed to take part in the great debates. The Greens have always been or at least perceived to be a one-issue party. Whether that is true or not really doesn't matter; all the other parties including the one headed by Stephen the Scary are or are tending towards that one issue. Thanks to Al Gore, David Suzuki and their enablers in the media, the gloom and doom over global warming (or as it is referred to during snowstorms, climate change) has made the Green Party mainstream. On that fact alone they should be allowed to participate in the televised debates.
The Green Party currently has the support of about 10 per cent of the voters. While this is in the range of "Elvis country" (the percentage of people who think that the King is still alive), they are not a lot lower in popular support than the Bloc and the NDP are. The Greens won't form the next government and in that respect they are no different than the Bloc that can't and the NDP that won't. What used to be a solid two-party system has turned into a pizza parliament and much like finer pizzerias everywhere, it wouldn't hurt to add a little green into the mix.
Unlike other parties that have never won a seat in parliament, it's only a matter of time before the Greens send an MP or two or more to Ottawa. If not during the next election then possibly the election after that. Party leader Elizabeth May should be allowed to participate.
As Hbert pointed out in her column, NDP leader Jack Layton is not too pleased with the idea of having May join the debates. According to Jacko, Stphane Dion will be there and he "is now the de facto head of the Green party". Good one, Jack. Of course Layton is just funnin' but he made his point. The Dippers have little to be proud of over the last few years but Jack ending up being the co-PM to the hapless Paul Martin and passing a budget without ever making the type of formal arrangement that May made with the climate obsessed Dion. It really was something.
Let's face it – while the reporters and the talking heads go gaga over televised election debates, most Canadians really couldn't care less. Since 1984 when John Turner threw up his hands and said "I had no option", viewers watch the debates simply waiting for a knockout punch. And that punch very rarely comes. They then conclude that the debates were boring.
But it will be interesting to watch the debates if May is allowed to take part. She is an important part of the mix as all the party leaders who argue that they are the greenest of them all. It will also be interesting to watch the dynamics between the Green Party leader and her new Uncle Steffi.
Watching Elizabeth May debate alongside Stphane Dion will be worth the price of admission which thankfully for us, will be nothing.
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