Monday, September 08, 2008

Greens shut out of TV debates

I can't believe they've shut her out again! What are Harper and Layton so afraid of?!? (Apparently, the Bloc has never said they'd pull out if Ms. May was included.)

Please sign the petition! I'll be boycotting (not watching) the debate unless she is included.

Edited to add:

Interesting to read the quote from Gerald Caplan in the G&M (in response to the question "Should she have been included?"):

Gerald Caplan ( former NDP campaign manager): Very forcefully yes.

I'm dismayed at the decision to keep Ms. May out of the debate. It's contrary to democracy, common sense and civil decency. I'm hugely disappointed that the NDP is party to this exclusion. I'm shocked that the Conservatives and NDP apparently have threatened not to participate if she had been included. I'm incredulous that Mr. Layton would use the Liberal-Green deal in a single seat to argue that they're virtually the same party. I can hardly believe Mr. Harper's brazenness in saying, without an iota of proof, that Ms. May intends to endorse Mr. Dion.


1 comment:

ydzabelishensky said...

Both the Conservatives and the NDP are competing with the Greens for votes.
But could it be that despite all their differences, both Harper and Layton have another, common, reason to fear the Green Party message? The Greens explicitly question unlimited materialistic economic growth:

"We recognize the limited scope for the material expansion of human society within the biosphere.... redefining the concept of wealth, to focus on quality of life rather than capacity for over-consumption".

The older political parties would probably have a hard time with this one. They are very used to promoting economic growth. They mainly differ on distributing income and wealth. In this sense, they may be just the left and right wings of the same thing.

If the Green Party is truly the only alternative to this "business as usual", then it is not surprising that the older parties would share a desire to muffle the Green Party message.