Film Critic Roger Ebert’s blog has an entry about the vice-presidential debate. That entry has many comments, including this interesting and perceptive comment from someone who lives in Quebec:
“Boy as a Canadian I sure don’t envy any of you dear neighbors. It is always the same, either Republican or Democratic…so boring.
Can’t you see that THEY own the ballpark. Only these two teams compete, sometimes one wins and sometimes it’s the other but they always play in THEIR ballpark…We too have to choose our government on the 14th and we have 5 choices (at least in Quebec we have, for the rest it is only 4). Isn’t that what real democracy should be about, a real choice that is not limited to either left or right. I am not saying we are better but at least we try.” The comment is by Philippe.
To see all the blog posts about the debate at the Ebert site, see here.
These comments are all very true. However, it was a struggle for the Green Party to get into the Canadian debates. And when Canada’s New Democratic Party is mentioned in the news media, it is sometimes as an after-thought.
Earl, do you know what criteria was used for the Canadian debates? If not, a website would be just as good.
Derek: I believe the criteria was having at least 1 member of parliament (the green party gained their first recently when an independent mp changed his registration to green).
The comments are true to a point. Unfortunately, the Canadian system suffers from the same problems as the American election system, in that there is no proportional representation. So, although there may be many choices on the ballot in any given district (riding), there are likely only 1-2 with any chance in that district, so Canadians get to play the same strategic voting and “lesser-of-two-evils” games as Americans.
It IS nice that at least 5 parties are debating nationally, even if that competition doesn’t really play out in electoral politics.
Canada’s ballot access law was greatly improved sometime in the 1990s, by the Supreme Court. It was a pretty big landmark case.
I doubt that will happen in the US, we may have to push for enacted legislation or even a constitutional amendment.
I have noticed that even the two-party UK seems to have pretty decent ballot and debate access rules.