For those who had the luxury of watching the televised Leaders’ Debate on Tuesday (April 12), it was like watching an old re-run of previous debates. There it was – four ‘white’ men performing for the cameras, each of them making sure they did not slip nor veer away too much from the script. And as if to add insult to the injury, the questioners (who were previously taped) were all white too! Where are we, the so-called invisible minorities, in the whole election process?
Certainly, the debate did not reflect the reality of present-day Canada. The media moguls, who I suspect are mostly white men, were the ones who approved the format and in their wisdom excluded us. These are the same people who decided again in their wisdom, to exclude Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada from the debate on the grounds that she has not won a seat in Parliament yet. How can an aspiring opposition leader gain the exposure she needs if she was not given the same oppourtunity as the rest of the other leaders?
In the end, none of the leaders really landed a knockout punch . We think voters will not change their minds because of what they have witnessed in the debate.
Post-script:In case you haven’t noticed, I intentionally ‘inserted ‘ ‘Old’ in the head to mimic what former International Aid Minister Bev Oda did to changean official document by inserting the word ‘not’, and lied about it!
