JacobSanford.com

CBC is reporting that the Green party is again threatening a lawsuit over being excluded from the national debate:

Leader Jim Harris said during a campaign stop in Charlottetown on Friday that his party had the support of 583,000 voters in the 2004 federal election, and there’s evidence the number will grow in the Jan. 23 vote.

[…]

He pointed out that the Bloc Quebecois was included in the debates for the 1993 election despite not being officially being recognized as a party.

The man has a good point.

But - If the green party was to obtain air time, it would seem only fair that that all other non-MP elected parties also be given an equal allotment…. So how many are there?

I was curious and did some mild digging : the following is courtesy of elections.ca, and is a list of all the currently registered national political parties in the upcoming federal election:

• Bloc Quebecois
• Canadian Action Party
• Christian Heritage Party of Canada
• Communist Party of Canada
• Conservative Party of Canada
• Green Party of Canada
• Liberal Party of Canada
• Libertarian Party of Canada
• Marijuana Party
• Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
• New Democratic Party
• Progressive Canadian Party

It’s a hard call - Everyone deserves their right to speak but on the other side of the coin, television networks have the right to air whatever they like. I’m undecided on this issue.

Of course, if you follow Noam Chomsky, he believes that this is simply “powerful corporate interests acting as a filter, only letting preordained views be heard by the public” at work (essentially excluding third parties and alternative viewpoints).

Hard to dispute that viewpoint - evidence of it is found in the National Post / Globe and Mail on any given day.

CTV is reporting that given a recent question, the Conservatives and NDP are (obviously) showing a split on a health care issues. When asked if their wives needed hip replacement surgery and had the option to go to a private clinic, Stephen Harper and Jack Layton responded as follows:

Jack Layton
Layton said he and his wife Olivia Chow, a candidate in Toronto’s downtown Trinity-Spadina riding, would rather suffer than go private.
“We would work for the public, for the system, because we believe in it,” he said.

Stephen Harper
Harper:Well, I’ll just say as a father and husband, you will do whatever you need to do to take care of your family
Warren: You would have gone private?
Harper: If that’s what I had to do.

For once, Stephen Harper’s inability to keep opnions to himself actually seems to gain him a ‘human’ feel - who wouldn’t agree with a man doing whatever he could for his family.

On the other side of the coin, I find it extremely hard to believe that Jack Layton would be so noble. Seems to be a case of “tell the people what they want to hear”.

I can guarantee that I’d be the first in line at this hypothetical clinic.

Later today we’ll find out when for sure. 11am EST everything will be clear.