While Elizabeth May slammed the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission -- and specifically the continued corporatization of Canadian media -- for invoking a "new, invented" rule to keep her out of tomorrow's English national leaders debates, those who "rallied for democracy" in Halifax on Saturday said they simply want to hear a different voice in national Canadian politics.
"I want to hear her speak. She has a legitimate place in the debates," said Alexandra Nicholson of Halifax. "We listen to everyone else all the time, we want to hear from [May]"
"I'm an undecided voter," said Danielle Dufour of British Columbia. "I'm not really into politics. But a lot of young Canadians will watch the debates and inform their opinions. They're leaving out a party that young people are supporting...[May] represents a whole different view."
"They're saying she can't speak in the debates because there's no Green MP in the House... But how's that going to happen if we don't hear a [Green] voice?" said Nicholson.
In addressing the crowd, May acknowledged the rally was taking place on traditional Mi'kmaq territory. She said she wants to participate in the national leaders debates because she wants to see the issues of a public inquiry into the police actions at the G20, the growing gap between rich and poor in Canada and the importance of community cohesion, the plight of First Nations and the scandals around Indigenous issues, women's rights, the concentration of power in corporate media and the climate crisis. ("I'll bet that in my interview with Peter Mansbridge, everything I said about climate will be removed," she said.)
May cited the British parliamentary political system -- one that makes use of unwritten rules -- as particularly dangerous under a "ruthless" leader like Stephen Harper. She listed Harper's proroguation of parliament in 2008 and the Senate's "daring" defeat of the Climate Accountability Act before it could get to committee as two other examples of unprecedented abuses of the power the Canadian political "democracy" grants its leading party.
"What's happening in a country in an election campaign where the leader only takes five questions per day from journalists, one from local media?" said May. "And where the media goes along with that?"
