I Can Hardly Wait To Read What The Blogging Dippers & The Blogging Tories Have To Say About This
Green Leader Elizabeth May will get a chance to debate her fellow party leaders after all.
The broadcasters consortium has invited Ms. May to the Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 debates, and received assurances from the other four party leaders that they will attend if Ms. May is invited, spokesman Jason MacDonald confirmed to The Globe and Mail.
The broadcasters made the change after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton both backed down from their opposition to Ms. May’s involvement.
I note some twit on Politics with Don Newman saying it was “never established” that Stephen Harper said he would not attend if May was allowed on the stage – that’s bullsh*te. I sat here on this very couch not 2 days ago and heard Jason MacDonald say out loud and publicly that three of the four political parties had said they would not attend is Elizabeth May was allowed at the debate and that, and only that, is why she wasn’t invited.
In no small measure the blogosphere needs to pat itself on the back for a job well done in this by not allowing the story to die as 3 of 4 of the established parties, and their assorted hyper-partisans would have wanted it to.
Update: That didn’t take long – it will take longer to whip the mess of PTBC’s keyboard though, what a little temper tantrum ‘eh?.
Being the rabid anti-conservative opinion channel/website/festival, the socialists at the liberals’ state-owned and state-funded billion-dollar-per-year CBC Newsworld division seem to feel it is incumbent upon them to shout down all the voices of sanity with their state-sponsored stupidity; and with the enthusiastic help and abject stupidity of their loyal communist/socialist/hater CBC fans and website commenters.
Ah, yeah, it is actual news Joel Johannesen – you just don’t happen to like it.
Grab your pens and papers, I’m about to make another prediction;
We’ll see alot of;
“Well, if it makes them feel better, fine. My party leader is going to wipe the floor with May anyways.”
“She’s an appendage of the Dion’s Liberals, and he needs all the help he can get, so maybe this will just make it fair.”
“The Consortium just caved because they are concerned with ratings, not real politics or the issues facing Canadians.”
Dion made the right move off the bat, SL you gotta give him some Democratic props for that.
I have been avoiding PTBC website for months, he is completely bat-f***ing crazy, and that is being polite about it. He makes Richard and Kate look sane and tolerant. Seriously, how long will it be before that guy is on the CBC headline news with the news ticker saying “Insane man from PTBC guns down 30 people at a CBC studio before being shot by police,…”
Ya, he is that kind of crazy
Well, I’m a Blogging Dipper, and I have to say that I’m very happy she’s being let in the debate. Jack was fundamentally wrong on this and I was very angry at him. The sour taste hasn’t really gone away yet, but I’m thankful he decided to drop it after the well-deserved shitstorm.
This is huge, no matter how small it may seem, its huge. Thanks to bloggers and motivated people, something was actually done. Props to everyone who got involved
The Blogging Dippers all thought May should be in the debate.
it’s nice to know we aren’t totaly irrelevant in this process.
Thanks to all the bloggers and activists who place democracy above partisanship, the first dipper I run into who mentions this is a good thing gets to go for a free beer.
Blogs are an echo chamber. They have no bearing on public opinion. Let’s not start blowing each other just yet.
Blogs are an echo chamber. They have no bearing on public opinion.
Hmmm… why do you bother reading and commenting? If I’m not mistaken, your comments are seldom mere echoes of others.
Blogs may not be as influential as we bloggers would like to think but the MSM is influential and, more and more, blogger opinions and blog discussions are being reported upon in the big media. Big media outlets like Macleans’s and the G&M have got on the blogging bandwagon with in-house blogs and by allowing commenting on op-ed and news items.
StageLeft was cited in yesterday’s National Post.
Let’s not start blowing each other just yet.
If not just yet, when would you like to start?
JB
Sorry, I disagree nastyboy. The blogosphere played (IMO) a significant role in this by helping to keep it front and centre in discussion and in the media…… had we basically shrugged when the established parties tried to throw their weight around do you really think the outcome would have been the same??
Is the blogosphere totally responsible? No
Was it a significant player? Absolutely.
WRT the original post, the vitriol is out there. Commenters on Leftdog are particularly small-minded and ignorant. They’ve singled out Elizabeth May’s physical disability for ridicule. “She walks funny” “She rides a tricycle.”
Yes, she does walk a little funny and does ride a tricycle. She had hip replacement surgery recently after suffering for years and languishing on a waiting list like other Canadians.
An out-of-context quote is making the rounds on Dipper sites and on their BT allies’ sites. “May says Canadians are stupid.”
The people (and bloggers) spoke on this issue. 4 to 1, they wanted the Green leader in the debates. The chickenshits relented when faced with voter backlash — not out of any new found sense of democratic fairness but simply as damage control. Today, Dips and Cons are each pointing at each other and saying “It wasn’t me.” Both NDP and Con leaders and official spokespersons are on the record as wanting May out and saying they’d boycott. Revisionism is rife and reprehensible.
May’s appearance at the debates and continued disgruntlement with the attempts to stifle democratic debate may well be a vote-splitter and could possibly lead to a Harper majority. If so, it will not be the Greens’ fault. The absurdly archaic FPTP electoral system will be to blame. Perhaps this victimization will motivate the Liberals to act on electoral reform.
JB
Robert, quite a few NDP bloggers were against May in the debates (if they are in fact now for it).
NP online gives a bit of a hat tip to some of us
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/09/10/tories-say-it-s-cool-is-may-joins-debate-if-mackay-can-come-too.aspx
Thanks to JB for the heads up.
My apologies to Leftdog. The comments that I saw earlier today regarding Lizzie’s funny walk and tricycle riding were, in fact, at CalgaryGrit.
http://calgarygrit.blogspot.com/2008/09/mays-day.html
JB
JB said-”An out-of-context quote is making the rounds on Dipper sites and on their BT allies’ sites. “May says Canadians are stupid.”
Yeah I seen that video where May called Cnd’s stupid.Even placed it on my blog ,for about 1/2 hour that is.At the end it’s obvious that tape was spliced,didn’t notice it the first time I viewed the video.
I am no fan of the Greens but I have no time for such tactics.That’s something I would expect to see over at SDA or at the BT’s for that matter
That said Jim Bob you can stop with the “Dipper Conservative allies” thing.That’s just stupid ,your partisanship is showing.
dirk
Listen to the podcast in it’s entirety yourself. She said it. If it was a mis-statement fine, but she said it. Unless TVO is in on the conspiracy too, Taylor’s video was not spliced.
http://www.tvo.org/podcasts/theagenda/audio/TAWSPTheLongGoodbyeGDP022207.mp3
Reply – Quote