Twitter gives Greens’ May voice in leaders debate
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, shut out of the Globe and Mail’s federal leaders debate in Calgary on Thursday, will have her say via Twitter with instant video-recorded answers.
When leaders from Canada’s three main political parties take part in the debate, May, representing Saanich-Gulf Islands, says she’ll be there, sort of.
“It’s the first time in Canada [this has been done] with the leader of a national party,” said Steve Ladurantaye, head of news and government partnerships for Twitter Canada, from Toronto.
“This isn’t like a stick-itto-the- Globe thing, it’s more like you don’t need to be invited by the mainstream media to take part in a national conversation anymore, as a candidate. Up until now, that’s kind of been the case,” Ladurantaye said.
“[Elizabeth May’s] got Twitter that will allow her to broadcast to millions of people, whether she’s part of the debate or not. . . .
“I think it will be very effective.”
The Globe and Mail is hosting the election debate between Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair on Thursday at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
The newspaper, in partnership with Google, will live-stream the debate at globeandmail.com and on the Globe’s YouTube chan- nel. It will also be available on CPAC TV. It’s not on any other television networks. The Globe will share video clips on Twitter.
May was not invited to the debate on the grounds that participating parties must have at least 12 seats.
“They are pretending they are operating under some principle, but in reality, they are just assisting the Harper Conservatives,” May said. “It’s illegitimate, it’s discriminatory, it’s part of the Conservative Party plan to deny Canadians the leaders debate that we’ve had in every election for the last 30 years — which is the national televised broadcasters’ debate.”
During the debate, the Green Party leader will operate from a war room of sorts at First Metropolitan United Church of Canada, 932 Balmoral Ave. in Victoria.
With the help of Twitter, May will make the same time-limited opening and closing remarks and answer the same questions, after the other leaders have spoken.
May expects to keep those answers to 30 seconds to keep in synch with the debate. “Basically, I’ll point the phone at her and upload it and it’s out,” Ladurantaye said. “It’s as close to real time as you can get.
“So if you are watching the debate and you have Twitter up, it will be as if she was there — that’s the idea.” People can watch the videos by going to @ElizabethMay or @Canadian Greensontwitter.com.
May said she’s concerned about being able to hold the other leaders to account. “It’s very cool to use the technology this way.”
The debate in Calgary will be shown live at the First Metropolitan United Church. May will be in a separate room, but her answers will be played for the audience.
Victoria Green candidate Jo-Ann Roberts and Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke Green candidate Frances Litman will be in attendance to moderate the evening. May will make remarks afterward.
Meanwhile, at a debate hosted by the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce at Parkland Secondary School Monday night, all four main party candidates were invited and attended. Judging by the applause, May was an overwhelming favourite among the more than 300 people in attendance.
The federal election is on Oct. 19.