Why was Elizabeth May, the only federal female leader who holds a seat in the House of Commons, excluded from the recent French language TVA/LCN language debate? And why did the other four leaders not object to her exclusion? Three of them describe themselves as feminists or at least progressives. Should they have refused to debate when she was not invited?

She clearly thinks so. In a biting opinion column for “Maclean’s” magazine, she noted that “the world of murky criteria, back room dealing, collusion between other parties to exclude Greens from debates, have been an anti-democratic scandal from 2008, 2011 and 2015.”

Partisanship aside, she is right to question motives. In October of 2018, the government announced the creation of an Independent Leaders’ Debate Commission, headed by former Gov. Gen. David Johnston with a mandate to organize two leaders’ debates — one in French and one in English. These official debates will take place this coming week. After some last-minute rethinking regarding the fledgling nature of Maxime Bernier’s party, all leaders will be included. Long overdue clarity regarding a debate schedule was appreciated.

Yet somehow, TVA, a private broadcasting network and 24-hour news headline channel owned by Quebecor Media, obtained their own debate with their own rules. Leaders were required to have had at least one MP elected in Quebec to qualify for inclusion. Since May’s riding is in British Columbia and since she does not have any Quebec MPs, she was ruled out.

The decision was extraordinary since several of the questions were focused on the environment. Did producers not want to remind Quebecers, who are environmental leaders, that May’s entire political life has been dedicated to fighting for responsible environmental stewardship? In fact, unless, I missed something, I don’t believe her name was mentioned once. She was also, of course, the only female leader.

A different logic was applied to Maxime Bernier, who most definitely is a Quebec MP but because he was elected as a Conservative, and not yet elected from his new right wing People’s Party, he too was excluded.

Clearly, TVA, with its highly popular political show “Face-à-Face,” was too big a prize for the other leaders to ignore and the rules suited them all. Rising poll numbers for the Greens threaten the traditional dynamic of the Liberals and the NDP, while the Conservatives would agree with Bernier’s exclusion.

Yet, the political manipulations were short sighted.

First, the debate allowed Yves-François Blanchet, the new Leader of the Bloc Québécois, an opportunity to introduce himself to the Quebec audience and to Francophones outside of Quebec. His performance did not disappoint although Justin Trudeau, with his deep Quebec roots, more than matched him on a number of issues.

Nevertheless, Blanchet was the headline story in the French media, raising the unwelcome spectre of a powerful Bloc leader in Ottawa — yet again. Those of us with long memories remember that the Bloc were the Official Opposition in 1993.

Secondly, if Quebec politics were highlighted, gender politics were sidelined, although abortion was the opening topic. Did it not occur to the organizers that the sensitive issue could have used a woman’s voice?

With the exception of Andrew Scheer, a strong and progressive defence by all of the leaders regarding a woman’s right to choose, were welcome but the “man panel” seemed glaringly out of date, leaving young women in particular with a disappointing image. Knowing that there would be four male leaders, why did TVA not consider a female moderator or at least co-share the moderator role?

In terms of party leaders, May is holding up the female gender by herself, whether she wants to or not. Female voters make up 52 per cent of the electorate. No matter what the political circumstances, our voices must be heard in every debate with major leaders.

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Campaign debates are a crucial part of our democratic process. They allow voters to assess leaders and to judge character as well as policies. They should not be subject to political games and negotiations.

In my opinion, Quebec voters were short changed last week. And so was Canadian democracy.

Penny Collenette is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa and was a senior director of the Prime Minister’s Office for Jean Chrétien. She is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @penottawa

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