Despite the presence of "more" debates for the 2015 Canadian federal election, the current federal government isn't that interested in having a significant debate on the issues involving Canadians.
The Broadcast Consortium — which is made up of CBC, Radio Canada, CTV and Shaw/Global — will have 2 debates, one in each official language. The reigning Conservatives will not participate in the Broadcast Consortium debates, but every other federal party will be there.
The Broadcast Consortium debates will also feature "unprecedented digital reach" through partnerships with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and YouTube.
The Conservatives said they want to do 5 debates and have agreed to 4 of them:
- economic issues sponsored by the Globe and Mail and Google Canada
- foreign policy sponsored by the Munk Debates
- French-language debate sponsored by TVA
- debate proposed by Maclean's and Rogers
TVA is owned by the rather conservative Quebecor Media.
We know Green Party leader Elizabeth May and the Bloc Quebecois are not invited to the Conservative debates. May will be at the Broadcast Consortium debates. Also, 3 of the 4 debates are in English, so there won't be an even amount in both official languages.
The reach of the 4 Conservative-preferred debates won't even come close to the reach of the Broadcast Consortium debates. C-SPAN traditionally carries the English language debate from the major media outlets; can't imagine C-SPAN would even cover one of them.
Stephen Harper did participate in the Broadcast Consortium debates in 2004 as the opposition leader and 2006, 2008, and 2011 as prime minister. So what is different about 2015?
A problem on both sides of the border is that political parties want to decide where and how to debate when the debates should be in the public interest, not the interest of any political party. What Harper has done should make Republicans south of the border salivate, especially if the Conservatives get away with it politically.
The NDP has already agreed to debate the 4 Conservative debates; the Liberals have held back support, hoping to win concessions such as equal number of debates in each official language.
However the Conservatives spin this move, the actions make Harper look scared to debate the major party leaders and take questions that he may not like. That's not good for democracy.
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Jim Flaherty. John Baird. And now Peter MacKay.
Some of Stephen Harper's top lieutenants got out of federal politics rather than run again in the 2015 election.
Flaherty's situation was a bit different due to his age and health. He died at 64 just under a month after resigning as Minister of Finance. Baird and MacKay were rising stars in the Conservative Party and both under 50.
Joe Oliver and Jason Kenney are two of Harper's top lieutenants. Neither of them have the potential charm and charisma that the other 3 have to someday take over as prime minister.
In parliamentary politics, even if parties stay in power, leaders tend to shift. Pierre Trudeau was an exception, though the Liberal run started with Lester Pearson and ended with the brief reign of John Turner. Trudeau was in office for 11 years in a row in his first stint; Harper has been on the job for 9 years.
Some will see this as a shift away from confidence in the Conservatives. Others will play this as leaving to make more money in the private sector. This doesn't look for Conservatives in the 2015 federal election.
MacKay was the last leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and encouraged the merger with the Canadian Alliance and its leader, Stephen Harper.
MacKay has been in Harper's cabinet from the start, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. He shifted to Defence in 2007 and finally Justice in 2013. MacKay will stay in the cabinet even after resigning his parliamentary seat.
Peter MacKay was likely too "liberal" for the Conservatives to ever elect party leader. But the Conservatives are running out of viable alternatives to eventually replace Stephen Harper.
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