During my first eight years on this planet, my Dad was the manager of CBC Vancouver, then called CBR (Canadian Broadcasting Rockies). That was a memorable time: the Lions Gate Bridge was opened; the King and Queen of England visited us, and the first coast-to-coast broadcast in Canada took place, featuring Mart Kenny and his band, who went on to become famously popular right across Canada.
In the decades since then, the coast-to-coast broadcasts have added significantly to democracy in Canada, enabling all Canadians to tune in to the election campaign debates among the leaders of the national political parties.
On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, three of the leaders of the national political parties decided to hold a debate without one of the national leaders, a woman who had received many accolades from the Canadian Parliament for the contributions which she had made to Parliament. This violation of Canadian democratic tradition was apparently instigated by the leader of the political party currently in majority and the obeisance of the other two party leaders clearly indicated who was in control of political affairs in Canada and who shared his contempt for women in political leadership roles.
This also clearly indicated that, if the people of Canada really want change in how Canada is governed, they will need to vote for the one party whose leader was deliberately left out of this debate: the Green Party of Canada.
Robert Radford
Duncan