If this happened in a high school student election, people would cry foul. How is it that a supposedly professional news organization can act in such a partisan way? The Green Party is running a candidate for every riding in Nova Scotia, yet is not being given a podium at the televised leaders debate. Mr. Crocker, a director at CBC TV in the Maritimes has unilaterally decided that the people won’t want to support the Green Party, so they don’t need to hear from them. It’s supposed to be the other way around Mr. Crocker - the public votes, then you know who the people support. To say what he did before the election shows a bias against the Green Party, and is also undemocratic.
The Debate is televised tonight I understand, but please write Mr. Crocker anyway to let him know your displeasure, so this mistake isn’t repeated.
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
talk talk talk | 01-Jun-06 at 5:26 pm | Permalink
When research companies call you and ask about political preferences/affiliation, they give you a choice of three: Conservative, Liberal, NDP. There is no “other”, nor “Green Party”, you have to choose one of those three. Rather skews the results, dontcha think?
Saskboy | 01-Jun-06 at 6:52 pm | Permalink
The other leaders are rather self serving, short sighted types. All they had to do was get 3 politicians to agree that the Greens were welcome, but none of them would stand up for the right thing.
http://www.cbc.ca/ns/story/nsv-green20060531.html
Mr. Crocker is trying to cook up some bad logic, and serve it on an old plate.
“They “just aren’t there” as a party”. The Green Party of NS has a full slate while the Liberals are short in the riding of Queens.
“Wright is not included in the leaders debate because the Green party has yet to prove it can win votes.”
The Reform party participated in the CBC leaders debate in 1993, when their party had never won a vote.
Mr. Crocker is playing a bad game with our democracy. He’s looking into the future, and saying that because no one will elect a Green member, he’s not going to let the Green leader speak to get a member elected. It’s utter nonesense babbling on his part - desperate to keep the Green Party down and out of the media.
Bevinbc | 02-Jun-06 at 10:54 am | Permalink
I wonder thou, if this isn’t being influenced by the Feds..re CBC who they would like to privatize and therefore influenced/biased reporting?
Saskboy | 02-Jun-06 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
I think it’s just the prevailing distrust media types seem to harbour toward new parties. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t include the Greens to throw in a “wildcard” and hype the event that way to get more viewers. Experts said no one won the debate, and it was uninformative and boring. If there’d been the Green Party there, it would have at least been informing the public of the Green platform, which they instead released today to a much smaller audience than TV provides.
Brent | 04-Jun-06 at 8:08 pm | Permalink
It’s the old Catch-22. You can’t get votes if you have no exposure and you can’t get exposure if you don’t get votes.
I think that the big 3 are avoiding letting the Greens in on debates because they are afraid to be embarrassed in public(especially the current ruling party). I can’t see any other reason for their exclusion. If I was a conspiracy theory sort I would assume that the assinine response from the CBC came directly from the PMO. This would give the CBC some wiggle room without having to admit they were pressured into denying the Greens some air time.
There are a number of misnamed “all party forums” coming up in the run up to the Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection. Only 3 parties welcome, thank you very much.
It’s pathetic that the “established” political parties would stoop to ganging up on the new kid. You would think that the federal NDP would have some sympathy as they likely suffered through a similar ordeal to be recognized by the 2 long established groups of asshats.
While we’re at it let’s bring back the Rhino Party and get them into the debates as well. It would be far more entertaining than the stale turgid sludge we get from the others.
Saskboy | 05-Jun-06 at 10:56 am | Permalink
Brent, It seems only 3 parties registered candidates, so we can’t criticise the forums as not being All Parties this time.
http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/sk-byelection.html