Can you say 'Chicken'?

Stephen Harper is a big chicken, and so is Jack Layton. But the biggest chickens of them all are the people who are part of the media consortium who buckled to threats that these two chickens made about boycotting the upcoming nationally televised leaders' debates if the leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, was allowed to participate.

The Green Party has been growing in popular support over the past several years in Canada, and regularly polls at or above the support levels for Jack Layton's NDPs. Canadians deserve to know more about the Green Party and they deserve to see Elizabeth May in a debate with the rest of the national party leaders. (Oh, which reminds me, Gilles Duceppe has been allowed in on the last several debates, even though his Bloc party only fields candidates in the province of Quebec.) But Stephen Harper is a big chicken, and doesn't want anyone on stage with him who can easily poke holes in his pathetic climate change 'plan.' And Jack Layton is just as scared -- he doesn't want anyone on stage with him who can remind Canadians what being passionate about what you believe in actually looks like.

In 2006, the GPC was kept out of the debates because they didn't have a member of parliament, but this has since changed. By rights the Green Party should now be included. But I guess it just takes a few intimidating words by our control-freak of a prime minister and the wanna-be prime minister and the media falls to its collective knees.

Some bloggers are blogging in green to show their support. I would too, but I always blog in green! So I took some other action instead. I've emailed the offices of Harper, Layton and Duceppe and told them how unfair and undemocratic their boycott threats are, and I've emailed the media consortium to tell them how cowardly they are for buckling under such threats, and 'deciding' to exclude May from the debates. Censorship, anyone? Oh, and I've upped my donation to the Green Party too, and encouraged family and friends to sign the petition at www.demanddemocraticdebates.ca.

We will only have democracy if we remember that we are CITIZENS and demand it! Here is the contact information for any other Canadians out there who are as outraged as I am about this:

Stephen Harper: Conservative Party of Canada Election Headquarters #1204 - 130 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5G4 Toll free: (866) 808-8407 Phone: (613) 755-2000 Fax at: (613) 755-2001 Email: pm@pm.gc.ca	Jack Layton: Canada's NDP 300 - 279 Laurier West Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5J9 Phone: 613-236-3613 Toll Free: 1-866-525-2555 Fax: 613-230-9950 TTY: 1-866-776-7742 Email: Layton.J@parl.gc.ca	Gilles Duceppe: Bloc Québécois 3730, boul. Crémazie Est Montréal (Québec) H2A 1B4 Téléphone : 514 526-3000 Télécopieur : 514 526-2868 Email : Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca
Constituency Office 1600 - 90th Avenue SW Suite A-203 Calgary, Alberta, T2V 5A8 Telephone: (403) 253-7990 Fax: (403) 253-8203	Constituency Office 221 Broadview Avenue Suite 100 (Main Office) Toronto, Ontario; M4M 2G3 Telephone: (416) 405-8914 Fax: (416) 405-8918	Constituency Office 1200 Papineau, # 350 Montreal, Québec; H2K 4R5 Telephone: (514) 522-1339 Fax: (514) 522-9899
Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario; K1A 0A6 Telephone: (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900	Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Telephone: (613) 995-7224 Fax: (613) 995-4565	Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Telephone: (613) 992-6777 Fax: (613) 954-2121

Remember, you can visit http://demanddemocraticdebates.ca to sign a petition to pressure the Broadcast consortium to make sure that Green Party leader Elizabeth May is included in the leaders' debates. You can also let the broadcast consortium know of your disagreement by contacting them at:

John Cruikshank, Publisher, CBC news
(416) 205-6300

Robert Hurst, President of CTV News
416-332-5000

Troy Reeb, Senior Vice President of News Canwest Global
(416) 967-1174

Pierre Dion, President, Groupe TVA Inc.
514-526-9251

Ronald Cohen, National Chair, Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
P.O. Box 3265, Station D Ottawa, ON K1P 6H8
613-233-4607

Glenn O'Farrell, President and CEO, Canadian Association of Broadcasters
P.O. Box 627, Stn. B Ottawa, ON K1P 5S2
613-233-4035 ext: 326

Sad chicken photo courtesy this flickr site.