I'll just pick up on what I was saying about how a debate about debates takes away attention that should be paid to public policy.
Really, one of the messages I'd like to convey is that we shouldn't be thinking that strategic games would magically vanish. With any such commissioner, we have to be concerned about how that person is appointed, and we have to be sure the person is truly independent. Finding a way to ensure that all political parties support that person's appointment must be sacrosanct. If we don't do that, what will happen is that in the heat of an election campaign, a political party will be prone to deriding the office of the commissioner and perhaps even the individual appointee. They will use that individual's alleged partisanship as a reason for delegitimizing the entire debate process. The political strategists and leaders who avoid complaining about the broadcast consortium or about the media might be comfortable complaining about someone they perceive to be a political appointee.
This brings me to my main opinion that I wish to relay to the committee: the proposed focus on leaders' debates is too narrow. It's well intentioned, but it is problematic for reasons I'm going to explain.
I believe the scope of the position needs to be broadened. To me, the position should remove the word “leaders”. This would produce some important changes that would have positive reverberations across our political system. A lot of scholars, including me, have raised concern about the excessive focus on party leaders in Canada. Media attention increases the power of the leadership circle and diminishes the influence of those outside the inner circle. The trend in intensifying the concentration of power in the so-called “centre” is often traced back to the 1970s. Since then, leaders' debates have been the focal point of election campaigns. Political strategists refer to the pre-debate period as the “phony war”, because up to that point, many people aren't paying attention.
It isn't as though there is much in the way of policy discussion drawn from the debates. The media looks for a knockout punch, and instantly judges who won and who lost. Then it moves on to following the leaders' tour. As well, research shows that the leaders' debates are mostly a media spectacle, rather than a civic education function. What many people learn is high level. Research shows that opinion formulation can be as limited as forming a judgment on the basis of candidates' mannerisms.
What matters, and what I'm concerned about, is that the leaders' debates place such an intense media glare on the leaders. This has a ripple effect throughout the entire campaign and into governance. In my view, you have an opportunity to do something about it. By referring to an “independent commissioner to organize party leaders' debates”, Parliament would be further formalizing the power and authority of the leaders. It's the kind of thing that goes against the spirit of the Reform Act that was passed by Parliament in 2015. I believe that the word “leaders” should be removed from the proposed position.
Calling the position “the independent commissioner to organize political party debates” would reduce the emphasis on party leaders. It would provide flexibility to broaden the commission or the commissioner's mandate. This could potentially lead to a much-needed and helpful organizational resource for constituency campaigns, where so many debates among candidates are held. The commissioner could and should provide guidelines and best practices for organizing debates in Canada's 338 electoral districts. After all, this is where candidates are running for whom Canadians can actually vote directly. Local media is also in flux.
Moreover, national level debates can and should emphasize the party as a team, rather than the leader as an individual. Removing the word “leader” could create opportunities for national level debates that include candidates that the leader believes are suitable for cabinet. The narrow nature of the word “leader” in the position reasonably precludes such opportunities.
The last point I'll make is that the more the institutional roles and processes emphasize the party leader, the more party election candidates, backbench MPs, and even ministers become political nobodies off of Parliament Hill. We need to find opportunities to level the playing field. An independent commissioner to organize debates for party leaders treats our parliamentary system as a presidential system. We should not entrench that further.
This committee and Parliament has an opportunity to do something about the perceived concentration of power in a political party's leadership circle. Please consider removing the word “leader” from the proposed position title.
Thank you.