David Robinson, the Green Party of Ontario candidate for Sudbury, is calling on Ontario broadcasters and other organizations that are holding election debates to include Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.

"The media is easily suckered into focusing on the personal drama between candidates rather than giving voters a clear picture about the issues," Robinson said in a release. "By reporting on personalities rather than platforms, the media sets up its own election narrative.

"That may be good for media organizations like the Toronto Sun, which recently had their secret pro-Doug Ford election plan exposed by another media outlet. But it rarely works for voters. And more than ever, right now voters are clamoring for real information about platforms and policies."

Tax dollars support four political parties in Ontario, so their leaders should be invited to the debates, Robinson said.

"The Green Party received 233,000 votes in the last election," he said. "Out of 20 registered political parties in Ontario, four get annual subsidies from the government. Voters may not know their tax dollars are going to support political parties. They may be interested to hear from the recipients of those funds during the election campaign.

"But one party receiving public funding – the Green Party – hasn’t been invited to attend any of the debates. If voters are already funding Greens, don’t they deserve to hear what Greens have to say?

"Greens have been elected at the federal level, and in provincial parliaments in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In British Columbia, Andrew Weaver’s Greens hold the balance of power and are keeping NDP premier John Horgan’s feet to the fire on killing the Kinder Morgan pipeline. But here in Ontario we have media organizations that don’t want to let voters hear from the Green Party. I guess leader Mike Schreiner is just too polite for the media, or perhaps he just talks about the issues too much, rather than slinging mud. Mike’s not what the media want for their #FakeNews debates."

Robinson has invited everyone who is interested in seeing Schreiner participate in public debates to visit FairDebates.ca and sign their petition.

FairDebates.ca is not aligned with the Green Party of Ontario.