Green Party Media Exclusion: Canada Election 2006

  • Author:
    n/a
  • Send To:
    The Canadian News Media
  • Sponsored By:
  • More Info at:
Are you the Author?
The news media is supposed to offer an unbiased and accurate reporting of the news. In times of Federal Elections their job becomes even more important as most voters get their information on party platforms from the news. We are fortunate to have choices in this country. A number of parties provided a full slate of candidates for the 2004 election. The size of our playing field is perhaps recognition by Canadians of the complexity of government making.

Despite the notable exclusion of the Green Party from the main stream media, the 2004 Federal election confirmed the status of this party as a national player and the media can not refute these numbers. If Canada did not use a first-past-the post electorate system then the Green party would have gained seats in the 38th parliament since they earned 4.3\% of the overall vote. This success did not earn them a seat in the media 'big leagues' for this election though. The mainstream media have yet to include the Green Party in their presentation of leaders of 'national parties'. Jim Harris is not scheduled to have a place in the televised debates, again.

The internet has revolutionized the ability of the electorate to create, share and disseminate information. All political parties have web sites and many have web blogs. The main stream media is ignoring the Green Party of Canada in their web logs too.

Luckily, the Greens in Canada have been internet innovators in the Canadian political scene since the late 1980s and the party has their policies (with an innovative interactive forum) online. This party did not qualify for federal election campaign funding until the last election so it is amazing what they have accomplished, on their own. The Green party of Canada now receives approximately $875,000 per year and one would hope that, despite the media blackout on this party, that on January 23rd, 2006 the party will be able to generate the minimum 2\% of votes cast in order to continue to receive public election campaign funding.

Why is it that you, the mainstream media, including the CBC - a federally funded media organization - can be so obviously prejudiced in your programming decisions? The Bloc does not run cross country candidates - yet gets full national media coverage. Most Canadians do not want nor need to hear from the Bloc because there is a probability of zero that the Bloc will run this country (Quebec has 75 of the 308 seats). The media continues to propagate ideas from a party that is meaningless to most Canadians instead of the ideas from a legitimate candidate with voter-allocated federal election funding dollars and candidates *across the country*.

Please reconsider your programming decisions during this election. There were 4.3\% of Canadian voters in 2004 who voted for the Green Party of Canada despite your exclusion and Canadian voters would like to know that the media represents all Canadian viewpoints, even if they are personally not going to vote Green.

403 Signatures

  • Orla Hegarty
    • Comments
    • Will it work this time around???
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://frostyballot.blogspot.com/" target="_new">Canada Federal Election 2006</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Craig Cantin
    • Comments
    • It is afront to democracy to exclude Jim Harris from the debates.
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://www.green-bloggers.com" target="_new">Green Bloggers</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Chris Alemany
    • Comments
    • Elections must be Fair and Equal!
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://www.murkyview.com" target="_new">Murkyview</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Kevin Gulstene
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Rod B
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Cathy J Oliver
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • David Oliver
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Ryan Ringer
    • Comments
    • It is a profound unfairness and completely undemocratic to exclude the Green Party from the public debate in this country. A party with so many hundreds of thousands of voters should not be marginalized in such a degrading way.
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://bluegrit.blogspot.com" target="_new">BlueGrit</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Gillian Merry
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jim Rutherford
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Nolan Beninger
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Mark Francis
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://section15.blogspot.com/" target="_new">Section 15</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Dave Fisher
    • Comments
    • Disgraceful
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Daniel Vallieres
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Mark
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Brandon Beasley
    • Comments
    • This is supposed to be a Democracy - if every major party is not included, it isn't.
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Matthew Good
    • Blog
    • BC
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Andy Walker
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Matthew Pirie
    • Comments
    • Support the Canadian Action Party - Real change for real Canadians
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Ian MacKenzie
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Nigel Tilley
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://greencanuck.net" target="_new">The Green Canuck</a>
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Nigel Tilley
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://greencanuck.net" target="_new">The Green Canuck</a>
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Garett Dmytrowich
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jeffrey Dmytrowich
    • Comments
    • I support democracy!
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Mike Todd
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • Waving or Drowning?
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • James Calder
    • Comments
    • Any party that fields a full slate of candidates deserves a spot at a national leaders debate.
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://progressiveright.blogspot.com/" target="_new">The Progressive Right</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jeremy Watt
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://jeremywatt.com" target="_new">JEREMYWATT.COM pretty much amazing</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jeremy Watt
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • <a href="http://jeremywatt.com" target="_new">JEREMYWATT.COM pretty much amazing</a>
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Matt Fontaine
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Richard Weatherill
    • Comments
    • Greens have legitimate input
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jake Robins
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Colin Campbell
    • Comments
    • All viewpoints should be shown, not just those that you necessarily agree with.
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Nolan Bartels
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Laurie Ward
    • Comments
    • ALL parites should have a fair shot of debating the "old guard" that is ruining our country. While I am not a member of the Green Party, I belive they have a lot to say and Canadians should listen to them re: ecology, etc. to save our country and the world.
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Julius Arscott
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Jaya Seeley
    • Comments
    • The very idea that a Broadcast Consortium decides which Federal Political Parties get Coverage on a National Televised Debate, which weighs heavily with the electorate as their primary source for information, arbitrarily without any set guidelines from Election Canada is not only anti-Democratic but also in some cases a total conflict of interest (ie. Peter Kent - Former member and current candidate for the Federal Conservative Party).
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Garry Hanan
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Colin Dwyer
    • Comments
    • What more must the Greens do to be treated as the national party that they are?
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • JJ Hodgson
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • JJ Hodgson
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Marcie Abramovitch
    • Comments
    • I feel strongly that the Greens should be in the debates...but i think the Bloc Quebecois also has a right to be in the debate. Perhaps a way of deciding it in the future could be a minimum vote threashold...although that still leaves the problem of how do you reach the threshold without getting onto the debates
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Barbara Bruederlin
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Shane Fluney
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
  • Jarod Moore
    • Comments
    • Canadians have the right to choose. Let us hear our choices.
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Dani Ryan
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Solitary Brother
    • Comments
    • В
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Garry Wiles
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Donna Wiles
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Michael Cooper
    • Comments
    • Democracy at work?
    • Blog
    • В
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No
  • Carla Ballman
    • Comments
    • I believe by leaving the Green Party out of the talks you are doing a great disservice to the country.
    • Do you belong to a political party?
    • No
    • Have you decided who you will vote for?
    • No