Article content

Justin Trudeau’s political opponents have seized on the Liberal leader’s decision to skip out on any debates beyond the two organized by the “official” debate commission.

Anti-democratic! What’s he hiding?

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or TOWHEY: Two leaders’ debates is more than enough Back to video

Give it a rest, I say. I’m with Trudeau on this one.

Election debates are at the core of Canada’s great democratic traditions.

Traditionally, there are at least two federal leaders debates every election. One in English. One in French. Traditionally, there is a great weeping and gnashing of teeth over who should be allowed to debate.

Following each debate, is a traditional rending of garments by pundits on morning radio and in the papers. Traditionally, these pundits point to how horrible the debate format was and how it must be done better next time. Traditionally, it never is.

All of that will be fixed this year. (Not really. But, hope is also part of our tradition.)

The newly-minted Leaders’ Debate Commission, headed by former Governor General David Johnston, will work with a consortium of Canada’s major TV networks plus a handful of online and print news organizations to stage the best-debates ever. There will be two of them. One in English, Oct. 7. The other in French, Oct. 10.