I planned to be in the 2015 women's debate, and the Green Party was scheduled—for those people who didn't know this—for the English language leaders' debate, which was to take place on the Thursday before the Thanksgiving weekend, until it was cancelled. Although I was disappointed not to have a women's debate, I was very disappointed not to have an English-language televised debate among the leaders at all.
That brings me to this question: how would one compel the leader of a party to show up, particularly if it's the prime minister?
Certainly the committee will study this question. The only thing I can think of that would be an effective sanction would be around rebates for expenditures during the election. I got this idea based on Kennedy Stewart's private member's bill—which I thought was excellent—on how to encourage parties to have women on their slates. Any party that fell below gender parity would experience less of the reimbursement that the people of Canada now give all the large parties, or all the parties. Any party that qualifies gets back most of what they spent on the election campaign.
I wonder how you'd react to the idea that if a leader of a party that was expecting the largesse from the people of Canada to pay back their expenses in an election campaign chose to shun one of the key ways in which Canadians can engage with an election campaign by not showing up, or threatening not to show up, and derailing the debates.
Would it be appropriate to look at amending the Elections Act to include a financial sanction to their party for a leader who didn't show up?