Federal election’s broadcast consortium debate cancelled

The Globe and Mail's James Bradshaw reports:
"There will be no federal election debate airing on Canada’s national over-the-air broadcasters, breaking a tradition of coast-to-coast televised debate coverage that stretches back to 1968.

"Despite months of discussions, the consortium of public and private networks that has long framed national election debates had to cancel its event planned for Thursday after failing to get the leading political parties on board.

"Instead, the party leaders chose where they would spar from a menu of pitches put forward by other media and civic-minded organizations, fragmenting the national debate and reshaping the way Canadians tuned in to watch. The chair of the consortium now believes the group was the victim of a boycott, and there are calls for an independent body to co-ordinate future debates, helping check the parties’ power over the process.

"It was only last week that the consortium’s networks – the CBC, CTV, Global, Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec – released the time slots they had held open for the English debate back to regular programming. That marked an end to months of talks which began with two private, all-party meetings the CBC hosted at its Toronto headquarters on April 24 and in its Ottawa offices on May 21. The Conservative Party rejected the consortium’s proposals and it became clear “that things were not going to be the same as they had been in years past,” consortium chair Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, said in an interview."
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