Election #3 Maxime Bernier and the Leadership Debate

Canadians like to think that they are a fair-minded people. In fact, much of our public persona around the world is based on the assumption that we treat people fairly, that everyone has an equal chance to succeed, that we do not discriminate against anyone. And in general, much of that is true. Or at least we try to make it true in a general way. There are, of course, thousands of examples where we have failed miserably to even come close to those ideals. On the other hand, there are times when our desire to appear to be fair causes us to make absurd decisions that while they may be fair for one individual are irresponsible and sometimes dangerous for the rest of us.

The Leaders' Debates Commissioner has decided that Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party has the right to participate in the leadership debates scheduled the first weeks in October. It is not that long ago that the Green Party were not allowed to participate in such debates in spite of the fact that they had earned votes in every part of the country because they did not have a seat in the House of Commons. Bernier and his party which was just created a few years ago and therefore has never garnered any votes at either the federal or provincial level now gets to spew his near racist, isolationist, right-wing conservative hate messages on national television. He gets to act like he has something useful to say - most of which will be toxic to any reasonable debate. As noted by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh “It is wrong that Mr. Bernier be given a platform to promote an ideology of hate that spreads prejudice and disinformation.” (Global News). The fact that he has people running for his party that clearly identify themselves with the far right/neo-Nazi movement should be grounds alone for him being blocked from participating in the debate.

It is more than slightly depressing that a political party that suggests that we need to reduce the number of immigrants allowed into the country and whose economic principles are based on the theory that we can all be successful if we only tried a little bit harder can be created and given substance in 2019. We really should be better than that. It is infuriating that in our desire to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to participate in our democratic election, we are forced to accept the irrelevant and harmful garbage that comes out of his mouth.

The singular advantage of him being on stage with the other party leaders is that we will get to see who speaks out the loudest against his proposed policies. If I were the Conservative Party strategist, I might be worried about Bernier snagging some votes from the far right of that party.In the meantime- perhaps we should stop being so fair.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5913569/singh-debate-commissioner-letter-bernier/