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Greens hire lawyer to fight for spot in TV debate: Party of Two

by Barry Artiste | September 3, 2008 at 05:54 am

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Barry Artiste

Yeah, like this won't open a slew of other Fringe Political Parties who do not hold any seats in Parliament, though a Liberal crossed the floor.

Elizabeth May, Tree Hugger extraordinaire wants equal time to battle the Mainstream political parties, NDP, Liberals and the Conservatives.

It would be different if May had some seats and a national party instead of pockets of candidates who as before failed to get a single seat including it's leader Elizabeth May, and her platform in which she fell off, when her voice fell on deaf ears of the Canadian public.

At least the decades past Rhinoceros Party had something interesting to say.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2008/09/02/6640851-cp.html

September 2, 2008

Greens hire lawyer to fight for spot in TV debate

By Terry Pedwell, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - The Green party has hired a lawyer to pressure the TV networks to include leader Elizabeth May in debates during the coming election campaign.

Since early last year, the Greens have lobbied the consortium of television networks that sets the ground rules for the leaders debates, demanding a place in the debates.

Getting into the debates would give the Greens the national exposure they need to move away from the realm of "fringe" party. May was excluded from the December 2005 debates prior to the 2006 election because her party had no seats in the House of Commons.

It didn't win a seat in the voting.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to call a general election later this week for Oct. 14.

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Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:21 on September 3rd, 2008

Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Well, Why not, let them be heard as any other party. It is a democracy. I know in most European countries all Parties no matter what number of seats have equal air time on Radio and TV. In Germany if I recall it right, all Parties with 5% of votes or more qualify for equal Air time. It is no big deal unless someone make it a big deal. If my memory is correct the Green do have more then 5% total votes in the last election they even went as High as 12% I think, Wish is rather high in a Democracy.

Barry Artiste

at 06:29 on September 3rd, 2008

Thanks Paschen, for the comments and flag, perhaps the Green Party in Europe has some seats, but in Canada, they do not even have any votes. Opening up the floor for the Greens will open up a flood of independent parties from all over from the Elvis Party, Alien Right Wing Communist party and god knows what else. What they should do is get all the independents and let them have their own media spotlight, but then the Media, being the media won't be interested in showcasing anything these fringe parties have to say. Remember she is really a party of one, and did not recieve any votes of significance to be even considered seriously.

Paschen

at 06:40 on September 3rd, 2008

Well, Europe goes by the Number of Votes, not like Canada, where even if you have more votes then the other party you can still lose if you fail to have the ridding, in Europe if you have 5% of the votes you also have 5% of the Seats. Why I was always in Favour for a reform in Canada to make it a real Democracy or called representative Democracy.