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I wonder if a new rule will be used to keep the Green Party off the debate platform? Shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
May elbows into election picture by poaching first Green MP
Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press, 30 Aug 08
Article link
It was supposed to be Jack Layton's day to act prime ministerial and frame the New Democratic Party's coming election pitch.
But the NDP leader's moment of political theatre was upstaged Saturday by the rival Greens, who elbowed their way into the pre-campaign manoeuvring by naming the first-ever Green party member of Parliament.
Blair Wilson, the Independent Vancouver MP elected as a Liberal in 2006, joined Green Leader Elizabeth May at a morning news conference to announce he will carry the party's standard into the House of Commons - in the unlikely event Parliament resumes as scheduled Sept. 15.
Wilson, who resigned from the Liberal caucus last fall under a cloud of controversy over his 2006 election expenses, was cleared this summer by Elections Canada of wrongdoing.
He approached the Greens just a week ago.
"It felt like coming home," Wilson said Saturday.
May characterized the move as an historic moment for Canada.
"We've established ourselves as a party that cannot be described as fringe."
For Layton's NDP, which has battled the Liberals for centre-left voters for decades, the Green party intrusion is an unwelcome reality.
Layton met Saturday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive in a set piece of political gamesmanship that served the purposes of both Tories and New Democrats.
Harper has summoned all three opposition party leaders for one-on-one talks before the resumption of Parliament, ostensibly to see whether there's agreement on the Conservative minority's fall legislative agenda.
Layton called the meeting "a charade" in advance and emerged to say it lived up to advance billing.
"He seems intent on quitting his job," said Layton, who immediately offered up his resume to Canadians on the issues of the economy, health care, the environment, food security and the listeriosis outbreak.
"As prime minister, I told (Harper) I would have been convening the leaders to figure out how we work on these key issues," Layton said.
"I got no sense the prime minister is prepared to do what I would do if I were prime minister."
It's a far cry from Layton's "lend me your vote" pitch in the 2006 campaign, when a progressive counterweight to the surging Harper Conservatives was his best hope.
This time around, May and the Greens hope to steal that role.
The party's 1.5 million votes in the 2006 election, combined with continued strong national polling numbers near 10 per cent and federal byelection results that have placed Green candidates ahead of other mainstream party contenders, all point to a legitimate political entity, says May.
She argued having Wilson on the parliamentary roll call as a Green MP is the final piece in moving her party into the mainstream.
"With a Green MP sitting in the House of Commons, it will now be impossible to exclude the Green party from the televised leaders' debates in the next election," said May.
She cited the precedent of Reform's Preston Manning in 1993, who was one of five party leaders in the televisied election debates that year, despite having only a single MP - Deb Grey - in the Commons.
Not so fast, was the immediate response from the Conservatives.
"Our view is there should only be one Liberal candidate in the leaders' debate," said Kory Teneycke, Harper's communications director, citing the agreement between Dion and May last year not to contest one another's ridings in the next election.
"You can't have two candidates from essentially the same party in the debate."
Another PMO spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, perhaps came closer to the real Tory concern when he said Dion "can't bring in a ringer to boost him during the debate."
May, a lawyer and environmentalist with theological training, displayed formidable rhetorical skill Saturday in attacking Harper's apparent rush to the polls.
She suggested Harper's own fixed election date law could conceivably spur a court challenge to stop him from dissolving Parliament without cause.
"I like to think Canadians notice when someone breaks their word in such spectacular fashion."
She decried Harper's "extraordinarily ruthless and surprising move" of raising a fall general election after calling federal byelections less than a month ago.
"Something spooked him and he changed his mind. It's contemptible," she said.
And if given a spot in the televised election debates, May promised to hold Harper's feet to the fire on climate change policy.
"So far, all he does is throw mud at other parties' ideas while the greenhouse gas levels from the Athabaska tar sands go through the roof."
May elbows into election picture by poaching first Green MP
Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press, 30 Aug 08
Article link
It was supposed to be Jack Layton's day to act prime ministerial and frame the New Democratic Party's coming election pitch.
But the NDP leader's moment of political theatre was upstaged Saturday by the rival Greens, who elbowed their way into the pre-campaign manoeuvring by naming the first-ever Green party member of Parliament.
Blair Wilson, the Independent Vancouver MP elected as a Liberal in 2006, joined Green Leader Elizabeth May at a morning news conference to announce he will carry the party's standard into the House of Commons - in the unlikely event Parliament resumes as scheduled Sept. 15.
Wilson, who resigned from the Liberal caucus last fall under a cloud of controversy over his 2006 election expenses, was cleared this summer by Elections Canada of wrongdoing.
He approached the Greens just a week ago.
"It felt like coming home," Wilson said Saturday.
May characterized the move as an historic moment for Canada.
"We've established ourselves as a party that cannot be described as fringe."
For Layton's NDP, which has battled the Liberals for centre-left voters for decades, the Green party intrusion is an unwelcome reality.
Layton met Saturday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive in a set piece of political gamesmanship that served the purposes of both Tories and New Democrats.
Harper has summoned all three opposition party leaders for one-on-one talks before the resumption of Parliament, ostensibly to see whether there's agreement on the Conservative minority's fall legislative agenda.
Layton called the meeting "a charade" in advance and emerged to say it lived up to advance billing.
"He seems intent on quitting his job," said Layton, who immediately offered up his resume to Canadians on the issues of the economy, health care, the environment, food security and the listeriosis outbreak.
"As prime minister, I told (Harper) I would have been convening the leaders to figure out how we work on these key issues," Layton said.
"I got no sense the prime minister is prepared to do what I would do if I were prime minister."
It's a far cry from Layton's "lend me your vote" pitch in the 2006 campaign, when a progressive counterweight to the surging Harper Conservatives was his best hope.
This time around, May and the Greens hope to steal that role.
The party's 1.5 million votes in the 2006 election, combined with continued strong national polling numbers near 10 per cent and federal byelection results that have placed Green candidates ahead of other mainstream party contenders, all point to a legitimate political entity, says May.
She argued having Wilson on the parliamentary roll call as a Green MP is the final piece in moving her party into the mainstream.
"With a Green MP sitting in the House of Commons, it will now be impossible to exclude the Green party from the televised leaders' debates in the next election," said May.
She cited the precedent of Reform's Preston Manning in 1993, who was one of five party leaders in the televisied election debates that year, despite having only a single MP - Deb Grey - in the Commons.
Not so fast, was the immediate response from the Conservatives.
"Our view is there should only be one Liberal candidate in the leaders' debate," said Kory Teneycke, Harper's communications director, citing the agreement between Dion and May last year not to contest one another's ridings in the next election.
"You can't have two candidates from essentially the same party in the debate."
Another PMO spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, perhaps came closer to the real Tory concern when he said Dion "can't bring in a ringer to boost him during the debate."
May, a lawyer and environmentalist with theological training, displayed formidable rhetorical skill Saturday in attacking Harper's apparent rush to the polls.
She suggested Harper's own fixed election date law could conceivably spur a court challenge to stop him from dissolving Parliament without cause.
"I like to think Canadians notice when someone breaks their word in such spectacular fashion."
She decried Harper's "extraordinarily ruthless and surprising move" of raising a fall general election after calling federal byelections less than a month ago.
"Something spooked him and he changed his mind. It's contemptible," she said.
And if given a spot in the televised election debates, May promised to hold Harper's feet to the fire on climate change policy.
"So far, all he does is throw mud at other parties' ideas while the greenhouse gas levels from the Athabaska tar sands go through the roof."
King of the Hill wins.
