Evidence of meeting #152 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was commissioner.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
I'm referring to the decisions that come out of the advisory board, their discussions and recommendations. Will these recommendations be directly to the producer, or will they go through you first?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
The advisory board helps us with advice on the crafting of the request for proposals and the terms that we put into that. When we evaluate the responses to that, we'll use two steps. We'll use an expert procurement group from within the Government of Canada that has expertise in the technicality of production to determine whether any or some or all of these responses meet the technical requirements.
When that is finished—yes or no—then a small evaluation committee made up of three people will advise myself and the secretariat with respect to who the winning bidder should be. In the next step, they'll continue their work with that winning bidder to determine ways that we can disseminate the debate feed more effectively and, more broadly than that, engage a wider range of parties in taking advantage of that material and putting it into a public engagement process. That group will report to the commissioner.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Will there be a separate producer for each debate, or will a single producer produce all of the debates?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
We've left that open. We have said that a bid for the French debates and a separate bid for the English debates would be fine. We've also invited a consortium to consider putting the two together.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
When you accepted this role of debate commissioner, what motivated you to accept it? Why did you think that this was a good idea, as an alternative to how debates have traditionally been done in elections in Canada?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
I suppose there are three or four reasons. The simplest reason sounds a little hokey, but it's simply because I was asked.
I've spent my life as a tenured university professor, one of the most delightful positions possible in our society, and have been asked frequently to chair different public interest things. I've almost always said yes to that over 40 years or so, subject to, “I don't think I have the qualifications,” and sometimes that's been a debate. From time to time I don't have the time. Typically it's simply because I'm doing another one. I do believe that it's a citizen responsibility, especially when you're lucky enough to be a professor of law in one of Canada's fine universities.
Second, I think it's vitally important that we have timely, predictable, first-class debates where people can make decisions on what kind of leader they want to be leading our country and what kinds of policies that person and his party should be pursuing, and be broadly engaged in the spectrum of choices that good societies have to make about where they want to take their country.
I must say, I have been somewhat worried about erosion of trust in public institutions, which moved me to write a book called Trust. It came out about six months or so ago. I think that was another compelling reason to say, “I suppose I need this like another hole in my head, but it's something I should do.”
Liberal
NDP
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
It's absolutely wonderful. Thank you.
With money changing hands in this House committee, I am a little worried.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I really liked your last answer. We went through a bit of a process in terms of how we got here, but when it came to the who, my comments are on record. Hearing your answer to the last question just reaffirms that in terms of which Canadians should be there and why. There's no better choice, and I'm really glad that you accepted.
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
As I said last time, that is touching, and as I said last time, when I told my wife that evening, she didn't agree, but nevertheless, it was helpful.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
It's probably a big part of keeping you grounded.
If I may, I have a couple of questions. One of the things that Parliament mandated you to do was to deal with the issue of no-shows. I wonder if you have gotten that far in your thinking. If so, where is that leading you? What are your thoughts on that?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
What an important question. In the mandate, we were not given any sanction with respect to no-shows, so it's an open book as to what one does.
I suppose one looks for the sanction of publicity and notoriety for no-shows. We will trigger that somewhat, which is a matter we discussed with our advisory board this morning, through a formal process of inviting all of the appropriate parties to participate in a debate at some point in advance of the debate itself. If the letter turns out to be negative, we would publish it so that, well in advance of the debate, it would be publicly known that a party has chosen not to participate or not to participate under certain conditions.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I realize that there was no mandate to compel. There was a bit of a disconnect in terms of the process between this committee, the government and Parliament. All of that is history now, but certainly from the committee's point of view, there was a desire that you do something to show this, including things like empty seats. Are you not considering that right now? Have you ruled it out?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
Certainly that suggestion has been presented to us on a number of occasions. We have not decided to put that into the terms of reference for the request for proposals. It will be interesting to see what the consortium says with respect to that.
At this stage, we would say that the focus would be on ensuring that there is appropriate publicity about a disinclination to participate and an opportunity for the reason to be stated by that person's being disinclined. I am not sure at this stage whether the commission will make further comments on that, but I think we want it to become a matter of public discussion sufficiently in advance of the debate. It couldn't be too last minute that we can't make a decision on it.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes. We don't want to give anyone an out.
As you know, for a lot of us, the impetus for wanting this done was what happened the last time. Part of that was the all but refusal to find an agreement. If we don't get people there, we fail at the main objective. We can't have the kind of fulsome debate you were talking about if we don't have all the players.
I hope that you give that as much study as possible. What we want to do is create, in our democracy, a situation in which, politically, someone cannot afford not to go. The hit for not going should be greater than any concern a person has about participating. Your being here and continuing to amplify this by letting people know it's coming plays into that very well.
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
Thank you for emphasizing that, by the way. That discussion in itself is important. What we have done, of course, which I'd like to think was quite thorough, is considered discussions in the last three or four years about this matter, including some of the very important presentations to your committee that led to your very excellent report and others
It's also a matter that we have taken up and will continue to take up with our comparative experts as to how they deal with similar situations.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
It's funny you say that, because that was going to be my next question. Having just been down in the U.S., I wonder if you know off the top of your head how they handle those things?
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
I would be unwise to cite that now, because I have general information—
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
—based on our most recent discussion with the executive director of the U.S. debates commission. I would want to give you a better answer than the one I have in my head.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That's fair enough. It's fine.
One of the other things that came up when we held our hearings in preparation for our report was social media. I'm very much in your category, probably, in terms of trying to stay on top of these things. It was a real eye-opener for me. It was good having Mr. Nater beside me, as he better reflected the younger generation's view of these things.
Wanting to addressing those social media platforms is so key now. What particular kinds of outreach have you done with them? Obviously there's the traditional kind, meeting with the networks and journalists in print and others. Then there are what we would call the other kinds, which are gaining in prominence.
In terms of your consultation, I'm curious as to your approach in allowing them to have input, both at the front end and the back end, in terms of how well they did.
Debates Commissioner, Leaders' Debates Commission
I begin, personally, with my 14 grandchildren, who are very good at tutoring their grandpa. They call me “Grandpa Book”, but the booking goes both ways.
