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Daval · 09-10-2008, 10:44 AM

Toronto radio just reported that it looks like Elizabeth May and the Green Party will be allowed to participate in the debates after all. Stephen Harper and Jack Layton have backed down from their previous stance.

Will post article when I find one.

Jack Layton backing down article
-----Added 10/9/2008 at 02 : 46 : 50-----

Quote:

May boosted by debate support

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BILL CURRY

Globe and Mail Update

September 10, 2008 at 1:27 PM EDT

PICTOU, N.S. — Elizabeth May was all smiles as she poured over the Wednesday morning papers at a Pictou Tim Horton's.

“It's like Christmas morning,” the Green Party Leader says to Ron Kelly, a local campaign volunteer.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald penned a forceful editorial called “Censoring the Greens.” It decried the actions of other party leaders to block Ms. May from taking part in the leaders' debates.

“Barring Ms. May from the leaders' debate is a disgrace to democracy,” concluded the province's paper of record.
Elizabeth May
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Elizabeth May receives a number of emphatic honks as she stands at the side of the road in Pictou, N.S., on Wednesday Sept. 10. (Bill Curry for The Globe and Mail)

But what had Ms. May even more excited was the call by former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark that she be included in the debates. Mr. Clark, who never joined the Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper, compared Ms. May to U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

“Ms. May shares essential democratic attributes with both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain – the outsider, the person the party establishments sought to exclude, the person with a message that resonates with citizens who've grown cynical about, or disaffected from, their political system,” he wrote in a column published in the Globe and Mail.

Mr. Clark stopped short of endorsing Ms. May, but certainly came pretty close.

More support arrived on Wednesday morning as Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said he would call the consortium later that day to ask why Ms. May was excluded.

Speaking at a roundtable of women candidates this morning in Streetsville, Ont., Mr. Dion criticized Mr. Harper and NDP leader Jack Layton for not supporting her participation.

“They don't have the courage to explain their position,” said Mr. Dion, suggesting they are hiding behind the consortium's decision.

Meanwhile, a small group of angry Green party workers tuned out to an NDP campaign event in Oshawa, Ont., to demand that Ms. May be allowed to take part in the leadership debate.

“Let Elizabeth speak,” they shouted, waving Green election signs across the parking lot from the microphone where Mr. Layton was proposing a strategy for job creation.

“The majority of Canadians want Elizabeth at the debate,” said Cavan Gostlin whose ex-wife, Pat Gostin, is running for the Greens.

“Democracy is about serving the wishes of the majority,” he said, showing a sign in which the letter D had been crossed out of NDP.

Many New Democrats have quietly expressed some discomfort with their party's stand on this issue. Mr. Layton's Facebook page has been inundated with posts from people claiming to be New Democrats expressing dismay.

It has been quite the week for Ms. May, the leader of a party that barely received any attention in the last campaign under former leader Jim Harris.

In pictures, editorial cartoons, radio and television interviews and online petitions, Ms. May has received the kind of attention a small party could only dream of.

Not all of the comments fit with Ms. May's message however.

Environmentalist David Suzuki, who has urged people to vote Green in the past, was quoted this morning hoping for the end of the Greens.

“I can't wait until there is no Green Party,” Dr. Suzuki was quoted as telling the Toronto Star.

“As long as there's a Green party, the implication is that the Greens somehow have a stranglehold on this issue; they're the ones that worry about the environment so the other parties can worry about other things. I don't think it's a ghetto subject.”

An environmentalist close to Dr. Suzuki said the comments were merely a rhetorical complaint about how the other parties view the environment and not a criticism of the Greens.

As she flipped through the papers at Tim Horton's, customers came by to offer their support. She is running in the staunchly Tory riding of Central Nova, held by Conservative Peter MacKay.

Later, standing at the side of the road in Pictou waving at cars, the number of emphatic honks suggests she is at least striking a cord.

In an interview, Ms. May acknowledges she has pushed back any policy announcements until Friday in order to manage the fallout over the debate decision.

Ms. May said she's read the forceful comments of NDP supporters writing to NDP Leader Jack Layton on his Facebook web page, and she is hopeful that pressure will ultimately lead the NDP to reverse its opposition to her inclusion in the debates.

The consortium of broadcasters that decide the rules for the leaders debates said Ms. May will not be invited because other party leaders threatened to boycott the event if she is included.

Officials with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton have confirmed they were the leaders who said they would not participate in a debate with Ms. May present.

Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton have cited Ms. May's favourable comments toward Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion to make their case. They argue inviting Ms. May would be like having two Liberals on stage, a claim Ms. May rejects.

Further, they point out the Greens have not elected an MP under the Green banner, and therefore nothing has changed since the 2006 campaign when only four leaders took part in the English and French language debates.

The Greens argue they should be in because polls show their support is hovering around 10 per cent and they now have an MP in the House after B.C. Independent Blair Wilson joined the party.

Ms. May said Mr. Layton's position is out of sync with the NDP's traditional support for giving smaller parties a voice through proportional representation. Known as PR, it is a voting system that would allot House of Commons seats among parties largely based on the percentage of public support they receive.

“I think the pressure on Layton and Harper, particularly on Jack, will force them to reconsider,” she said. “If it's down to one leader saying ‘we won't participate,' that's not tenable. But we don't want the story of this election to be about our exclusion. We want it to be about our ideas.”

So far however, Mr. Layton is holding firm in his position.

Interviewed Wednesday morning on CBC Newsworld, Mr. Layton was repeatedly asked to comment on the opposition he's receiving on his Facebook page from NDP supporters.

The NDP leader however remained evasive, answering the questions with unrelated statements about Mr. Harper.

“I'm not troubled by that,” he eventually allowed, in reference to the feedback on the website being read to him over the air. “Nothing has changed from the last time around.”

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