TV Debates For All?

The CHP wants minor parties to be included in the television debates. And they are ready to go as far as suing the consortium of broadcasters organizing the debates, so that all registered parties are allowed to participate. With all my respect to Mr. Ron Gray and the CHP, it's a bad idea. Not only because it makes the party look like an bunch of activists who run to the courts every time things don't go their way. And not only because it would be quite difficult to organize an actual debate (and a civilized one) with as many as 19 political party leaders participating. There's more to the problem than that.

First and foremost - there's nothing easier nowadays than getting a political party registered. The old rule which required a political party to nominate 50 candidates in each election is gone. All you need is 250 signatures, 1 candidate (just one!) and a few officials, including a financial agent. That's it! So we have 19 registered parties. 9 of them are running less than a dozen candidates. Even if each one of those candidates gets elected - the party won't have enough MPs to have an official status in the Commons. So what's the point of even registering those parties, let alone - allowing their leaders to participate in the televised debates?

I understand the reasoning of Ron Gray. I agree - allowing a political party leader to participate in the debate is a valuable campaign contribution. If we take his example ($63,000 for a 30-second prime time ad) - we're talking about a $15M value which is shared evenly among the leaders of 4 or 5 largest political parties while others get nothing. But should the Western Block or the Work Less Party leader, who waited until the very last moment to become the party's only candidate be entitled to an equal share of the pie? I don't think so. Should some of that airtime be available to the CHP - which has 59 candidates? The BQ runs 75 and Gilles Duceppe is in. But then the Bloc has 48 sitting MPs...

During the 1993 election campaign, CBC Newsworld organized a special televised debate between the leaders of the minor parties. Maybe we could implement similar debates for the parties that don't have a sitting MP and that don't enjoy noticeable support in the polls. But still we can't have all 14 minor party leaders in there. We may set a minimum number of candidates or we may simply select the top 5 or 6. But I don't think that every single activist who can't even find a second candidate to run for his party should be allowed to appear on a nationally broadcast event.