High Noon in Debate Gulch

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has been excluded from the Leaders' Debates next month. Stephen Harper said he would not share a stage with her because she is secretly a Liberal (!) while Jack Layton says the Green Party is not a real party because we have no elected MPs yet.

Harper's evidence is that Stephane Dion is not fielding a Liberal in May's riding. Yet May represents the Green Party, which is running 306 candidates against Liberals. If we really were closet Liberals, Harper would support us 100% in order to split the Liberal vote. Clearly that isn't the case.

Layton is invoking a rule that doesn't exist. The Bloc Quebecois had no elected MP the first time they were in the debates. We represent as many voters as the Bloc--if all our voters were concentrated in one place like them, we would have been in Parliament years ago.

The Green Party takes voters away from all the major parties, which is why they have a common interest in marginalizing us. But I think this kind of backroom chicanery reflects badly on them.

This is a major setback for us because we have big ideas but not a big wallet; we can't afford TV ads like the established parties to get our ideas heard.

Sept 10 update: the Green Party will be in the debates after all! Harper and Layton bowed to public pressure. Now May has had free publicity as the defender of democracy, and we still get to speak our piece to a national audience.