[Sust-mar] PETITION: include the Green Party in January debates!

[Paul A Falvo]

What do Farley Mowat, Preston Manning,
David Suzuki, Lloyd Axworthy, Keith Spicer and
Mel Hurtig have in common?

	They all agree that the Canadian Leadership
debates should include the Green Party.

	The Green Party of Canada was excluded from
the first two televised leaders' debates - but there are
still two more - on January 9 and 10. We are trying to
get everyone to whom this matters to go to:
www.info-greenparty.ca/petition/  and sign the
petition for inclusion in the next two debates. So far
more than 35,000 Canadians have done just that!

	If you agree would you please also forward this
message to any of your email contacts who you feel might
share this concern?

	Below is a list of brief points that argue for our
inclusion - for a full background paper on the issue
go to
http://web.greenparty.ca/download/backgrounder.pdf

	Why the Green Party should be Included in the
Televised Leaders Debates

*   The Green Party of Canada is running candidates
in all 308 ridings;

*   The party won almost 600,000 votes in the last
election and polls currently indicate 800,000 voters
have already decided to vote Green on January 23,
2006;

*   This support is just the tip of the iceberg because
in the last election just, two weeks before polling day,
18% of voters said they would vote for the Green Party
if they were to switch their minds. Polling research
from the summer of 2005 showed that 34% of
Canadian voters (more than one in every three) will
now consider voting Green;

*   The Green Party of Canada is running 4 times as
many candidates as the Bloc, which is included in the
debate;

*   The Bloc won 54 seats after being included in the
1993 TV debates without ever having elected an MP
under its banner;

*   The Reform Party went from 0 seats in 1988 to 52
seats in 1993 when Preston Manning was included in
the debates;

*   There were 5 leaders in the debates in 1993, 1997
and 2000 - and with the merger of the Canadian
Alliance and Progressive Conservative Parties there is
a spare seat at the table;

*   Some 8.8 million Canadian electors did not vote in
the 2004 election - why?  Because they didn't see their
values and their ethics reflected in any of the old line
political parties. Only 5 million voted Liberal only 4
million voted Conservative. The Green Party is
presenting a new vision for Canada - something that
Canadian voters respond to, once they hear about it!

*   Gordon Wilson, the leader of the BC liberal Party in
1991, was included in the debates without having any
seats and, based on his performance, the Liberals won
17 seats and became the official opposition;

*   A broadcast consortium of 5 unelected,
unaccountable executives can't dictate to Canadians
what our democracy will look like or sound like - any
more than Canadian would be willing to have the 5
big banks run our elections.


Thank you, in advance, for joining the long list of
prominent Canadians who agree that the Green Party
should be included on the debates.  Some of whom
are listed here:

David Suzuki, Author, Geneticist, CBC Broadcaster

Preston Manning, Founder & Former Leader Reform Party

Bill Loewen, Founding President, National Party

Paul Hellyer, Founder, Canadian Action Party

Senator Shirley Maheu, Deputy Speaker,

Senate of Canada

Senator Nancy Ruth

Senator Mira Spivak

Mario Dumont, Leader ADQ, Quebec

Mel Hurtig - Author & Activist, former leader
National Party

Judy Rebick, Gindin Chair in Social Justice &
Democracy, Ryerson University

Keith C Norton, Chief Commissioner ,
Ontario Human Rights Commission

John Meisel, former Chairman, CRTC

Keith Spicer, former Chairman, CRTC

Hugh Segal - President Institute for Research on Public Policy

Mark Tewksbury - Olympic Gold Medalist

Very Reverend Lois Wilson, former Senator &
Moderator of the United Church of Canada

Peter Desbarats, former Dean of Journalism,
University of Western Ontario, author and former CBC journalist

John Williamson, Federal Director,
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Diane Francis, Editor-at-Large, Financial Post

John Sewell, Former Mayor of Toronto

Jed Goldberg, President, Earth Day Canada

Ronald Watts, Principal Emeritus and
Professor Emeritus, Queen's University

Joe Jordan, former Liberal MP

Paul Watson Sea Sheppard, founder Greenpeace

Lori Stahlbrand, Former CBC Radio Broadcaster

Larry Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada

Michael de Pencier, Chairman of World Wildlife Fund Canada

Michael Adams, President, Environics Group

David Scrymgeour, Former National Director Progressive
Conservative Party of Canada

Rosemary Speirs, former journalist and campaigner for
equality for women in politics

Elizabeth May, Author & Environmentalist

Irshad Manji, Author & host of "Big Ideas," TVOntario

Peter Trueman, former anchor for Global Television

Rudyard Griffiths, Director, Dominion Institute

Lloyd Axworthy, President University of Winnipeg

Farley Mowat, novelist and naturalist

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"It is from the clash of differing opinions that the light of truth shines."

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