Number of leaders’ debates may double
Consortium to invite party leaders to debate at start, end of campaign
Broadcasters want to double the number of leaders’ debates in the upcoming federal election, increasing the number to four — two in each official language.
In the past two elections, there was just one debate in each language. However, in 2006, there were two in each language.
Representatives of five political parties heard the proposal at a meeting on Friday with broadcast executives at the CBC headquarters in Toronto. The meeting was chaired by Jen McGuire, editor-inchief of CBC News.
The election debates are organized by a consortium of broadcasters.
The meeting took place behind closed doors, with participants agreeing to confidentiality. For that reason, all details of the meeting come from sources speaking on condition that they not be identified.
“They made a proposal,” said one participant.
“We asked questions. No commitments were made.”
At the meeting, the consortium told party representatives that it intends to invite Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green Leader Elizabeth May to two sets of debates, one near the beginning of the campaign and one near the end. All four twohour debates would be filmed in the presence of a studio audience, with some questions from Twitter.
The English language debates would be hosted by anchors from three networks: CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme and Global’s Dawna Friesen.
The inclusion of May, who participated in the 2008 but not the 2011 debate, would be a significant win for the Greens.
Bloc Québécois leader Mario Beaulieu will be invited to participate in the two French-language debates, but not the English ones.
In previous debates, when the Bloc Québécois held dozens of seats in the House of Commons, leader Gilles Duceppe participated in both the English and French language debates.
Jean-François Fortin, leader of the two-member Forces et Démocratie party, issued a news release Friday complaining that it was excluded from the meeting and will be excluded from the debates.
Fortin and Jean-François Larose, the party’s other MP, were in the lobby outside the meeting.
There is no guarantee that the consortium’s proposal will be accepted by the parties. Some political insiders are quietly suggesting that in the changed media landscape it may be time for someone else to run the debates.
The inclusion of May, who participated in the 2008 but not the 2011 debate, would be a significant win for the Greens.
The consortium is made up of CTV, CBC, Global and Radio Canada, but the largest private French language network, TVA, which has participated in past consortiums, has pulled out and may host its own debate.
Maclean’s magazine has proposed breaking the consortium’s “monopoly” on debates by hosting its own event.
The proposal from the consortium is likely to be just the beginning of a long process of closeddoor wrangling between now and election day, Oct. 19.