Did the networks really want Elizabeth May?

Posted by padams under Election 2008, Election 2008 Media commentary

Paul Adams

 

Yesterday, Ira Wagman raised the question of whether the networks really wanted Elizabeth May in the debates to begin with. In an article on the Globe website, the former head of the network consortium, ex-CBC Supremo Tony Burman, who is belatedly advocating an independent debate commission, sheds some light:

Early last year, as Canada’s new Conservative minority government was under attack in the Commons, I called the networks together to quietly discuss the format of the next debates in case a sudden election became necessary. We invited Ms. May and her senior colleagues to make their case to us.

After they left, the networks privately debated the issue. We never actually reached an agreement that day, although all of the networks were sympathetic to the ‘public service’ dimension of the Greens’ case. Some networks worried that adding a fifth leader would make the debate “unwatchable” but we all knew that the elephant in the room was actually living at 24 Sussex Drive. And he – the Prime Minister – would effectively have veto power. Within days of the meeting, we were privately told by the Conservative Party representative that Prime Minister Harper would not participate in the debates if the Green Party leader was there.

So the answer seems to be “yes and no”.

 

Paul Adams is a former political reporter with CBC and the Globe and Mail who is now a member of Carleton’s journalism faculty and executive director of EKOS Research Associates