On Saturday, April 21, a presidential debate was held in Los Angeles. The participants were all three Green presidential candidates who are on the California Green Party presidential primary ballot, and three of the four candidates who are seeking the Peace & Freedom Party nomination. Here is a link to the video.

Unfortunately, the sound doesn’t work for the first 14 minutes for this particular link, but it is fine afterwards. The debate is two hours long. It will be broadcast soon on the Young Turks show on Current TV cable network, and also on Pacifica Radio. Those two broadcasts will have high quality sound for the entire debate.

The participants were Rocky Anderson, Roseanne Barr, Stephen Durham, Peta Lindsay, Kent Mesplay, and Jill Stein. This was Barr’s first debate as a presidential candidate. Although Stewart Alexander and James Ogle had been expected, they were not able to attend.

Stephane Dion, a former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and a current member of the Canadian Parliament, representing a district in Montreal, has this op-ed advocating proportional representation. The op-ed is published in the April 22 issue of the National Post, one of Canada’s national daily newspapers.

The op-ed is very specific in promoting one particular type of proportional representation, a type that is now used in Finland. The system he describes gives voters the opportunity to choose the candidate as well as the political party. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.

This story reveals that many U.S. House candidates in New York have had their primary ballot access petitions challenged this year. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.