Leaders' Debate: Green Party has earned its spot

Attention: Assignment Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Nov. 30, 2005) - The Green Party of Canada again finds itself stymied by the opaque and seemingly arbitrary rules governing participation in the Leaders' Debates, said Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris today in Toronto as he released a backgrounder advocating for the party's inclusion.

Despite a surge in popularity, and even though it receives over $1 million of taxpayer money, the Green Party has been excluded from preparations for the debates to be held during this election. The Green Party believes that any party that achieves over 2 per cent of the vote must be included, as a consequence of their federal funding. "When taxpayers help finance a political party, but cannot see or hear from its leader, it simply doesn't make sense", said Harris. "The broadcast consortium's decision erodes voter interest and participation in the election."

"Nearly 40 percent of eligible voters didn't cast a ballot in the 2004 election," Harris said. "Their choice resulted in the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history. In fact, more people didn't vote than voted in all of the other provinces and territories combined, except for Ontario. And in 2004, the three old-line parties won one million less votes than they did in 1984, despite 5.7 million new voters."

The decision by the broadcast consortium to exclude the Green Party flies in the face of its previous rulings. Despite having no seats in Parliament in 1993, no official recognition from the Speaker, and only 75 candidates, the Bloc Quebecois was included in both the French and English debates. Preston Manning participated in the 1993 leaders' debate based on the 11,154 votes Deborah Grey won in a 1989 by-election with a 47 per cent turnout. In 1993, they only ran 207 candidates.

In 2004, the Green Party ran a full slate of candidates and won 583,000 votes, over double the Reform Party's performance in 1988. Still, it was excluded from the debate in 2004. The consortium cited the "large number of political parties contesting the 2004 federal election" as a reason to exclude the Green Party from participating in the debate and that five leaders would be unwieldy. But evidently, at least five parties can fit in the studio as they did in 1993, 1997 and 2000. A sense of fair play and the consortium's own precedent suggest that the Green Party should be able to join the debate.

Peter Kent, one of the five executives who decided to exclude the Green Party from the 2004 debate, will run for the Conservatives in this election. The broadcast consortium and its members have no direct accountability to our electoral system, allowing a possible partisan bias on the part of one or more of its members to go unchecked by public scrutiny.

The full backgrounder may be obtained at www.greenparty.ca.

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For more info contact
Van Ferrier, Media Relations Officer
Tel: 514.844.4364 Email: van.ferrier@greenparty.ca
Derek Pinto
416.618.0613

/For further information: www.greenparty.ca/


IN: POLITICS