Last Thursday, the Canadian federal debate and the U.S. vice-presidential debate aired on TV simultaneously and, while some people flipped channels frantically or streamed online content in separate, open windows, most people were forced to settle for one debate over the other.
It’s disappointing that many people tuned in to the U.S. broadcast instead of the Canadian one.
It’s ludicrous to suggest Canada should have scheduled its debate for a different night to avoid the conflict; one needn’t consider that the idea of rescheduling their debate even crossed the U.S. stations’ minds.
Canada goes to the polls in a week and the two national debates—one French, one English—were the only opportunities for voters to see all five parties in action.
The American election campaign has three presidential and one vice-presidential debate, but for English-speaking Canadians, Thursday was the only opportunity to assess the candidates in the head-to-head realm of public debate.
Citizens have a duty to educate themselves about an election and, although the debate was by no means the only method of finding out about the different parties, it would have been a good complement to visiting parties’ websites or reading newspaper coverage.
Although Canadians will be affected by the results of the U.S. presidential election, we also have no say in deciding the matter. We have a direct influence on next week’s outcome.
For the first time, the Green Party was represented in the debate and, considering that public helped propel party leader Elizabeth May to a seat at the roundtable, one would hope her ers at least tuned in to see her there.
The debate provided people outside of Quebec a rare opportunity to hear from Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe. Viewers also got to assess how well current Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to criticisms from the other leaders.
The new roundtable format allowed for a lot of interaction amongst the leaders and their comments contained substance on real issues.
Senator Joseph Biden and Governor Sarah Palin, on the other hand, simply read off prepared speeches and reiterated tired party lines.
It might be more interesting to watch the U.S. drama unfold than Canada’s less colourful politicians, but politics shouldn’t be measured on entertainment value alone.
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