Politics - Federal

Elizabeth May After All!

By RTH Staff
Published September 10, 2008

CBC confirms that Green Party leader Elizabeth May will be allowed to participate in the televised leaders debates.

After the broadcasters' consortium announced earlier this week that they would not allow Ms. May to participate, blaming opposition from the Conservative Party, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, a firestorm of public outrage erupted.

NPD leader Jack Layton was the first to backtrack, followed by Conservative Party leader Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The consortium then reversed its earlier decision.

May, in an interview earlier Wednesday, said tens of thousands of Canadians came to her defence, with some staging protests or telephoning the TV networks in charge of the debates. May said the events of the last few days prove that "democracy does not happen behind closed doors."

"When you get engaged, you can change the world, and I intend to do that in the debates," she said.

3 Comments

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Read Comments

[ - ]

By peter (anonymous) | Posted September 10, 2008 at 21:57:28

yayyyyyyyyyy

i've lost a lot of respect for layton these past few days.

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By Linchpin (anonymous) | Posted September 10, 2008 at 22:52:49

Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that the (apparant) egalitarianism of the NDP, the (apparant) eco-awareness of the Green Party, and the (apparant) anti-statism of our RTH colleague "A Smith" and his ilk are not contradictary goals. When removed from the din of centralized and authoritarian institutions (capital no less than the state), these social ideals reinforce each other, indeed depend on each other for realization.

Only one political movement sees the inherent complementarity of freedom, equality, and harmony with non-human nature. Call it what you want. It has many names: radical democracy, direct democracy, communalism, autonomism, social anarchism, left-libertarianism, or simply libertarianism (before that veritable term was jacked by market fundamentalists.) The basic concept is people collectively managing their communities and workplaces without the dictatorial authority of the boss or the pseudo-democratic authority of the politician.

Yes vote. But it pains me to see some of the most critical and reflective members of the community putting their attention into a dog-and-pony show.

linchpin.ca

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By Melville (anonymous) | Posted September 11, 2008 at 09:16:26

Yeah, I lost total respect for Layton in this interview - he sounds just like Harper, except replaces the word "Dion" with "Harper" in his backtalk..

youtube - watch?v=vGlsWzCs_VQ

Permalink | Context

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to comment.

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds