Thank you.
Evidence of meeting #81 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 debates.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #81 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 debates.
A recording is available from Parliament.
November 28th, 2017 / 1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
That's similar to my concern. Once government gets hold of something, it usually grows. It doesn't shrink.
Maybe, Mr. Wells, I could quickly ask something. I know time is running short. Was the feed that Maclean's had during the last leaders' debate in the 2015 election offered to other broadcast networks?
Senior Writer, Maclean's, As an Individual
It was. I made it my business, because I was trying to get ready to moderate a debate, which was essentially a journalistic job. I didn't pay close attention to those discussions. My understanding is that Rogers offered the feed to other broadcasters for the kind of fee that is normally charged for that service. It's a fee at a level that broadcast networks could easily afford. The broadcast networks said, “No, thank you.” Their public explanation for doing that was that they had no control over the content, and they had no guarantee that we were going to deliver a proper debate to them, and they didn't want to broadcast crap to their audiences.
My personal preference would have been that we offer the feed for free. My personal preference would have been that all of these networks on which I have appeared would understand that I would do good work. I'd also see a potential role for the debate commissioner as vetting independent proposals and declaring that this and this and this proposed debate run by outside groups rise to a certain level of quality, and therefore the commissioner declares these debates a “must carry”—but that's one idea among many.
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
To your understanding, the only condition was a small fee to the other networks, and they said, “No, thanks.” That's to your understanding.
Senior Writer, Maclean's, As an Individual
Yes. I stand to be corrected by the broadcast networks, but that is what I learned.
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
Okay.
Mr. Wells, do you see possibly, instead of letting the markets and the network decide how best to work, that this is another step in government overreach in terms of a potential commissioner? How do you see this playing out?
Senior Writer, Maclean's, As an Individual
I think it's legitimate for the state to have an interest in this element of campaigns, as it has an interest in so many other elements of campaigns. I think it's really hard to do it in such a way that things improve.
Conservative
Senior Writer, Maclean's, As an Individual
I've heard people refer to the presidential debate commission in the United States as a model. I would urge this committee to actually study how the presidential debate commission works. It's a farce. It's a racket by the old-line parties to ensure their monopoly over the White House, or their duopoly over the White House. There's a reason that no candidate from a third party has come close to getting elected in a century. The presidential debate commission is not foreign to that outcome.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Thank you.
Mr. Christopherson has agreed to give up his time to discuss his motion.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for coming today. I'm sorry for the fire alarm and the vote that took up some of the time, but you provided some very sage advice and we got all your presentations in, which is the important thing. People can of course contact you individually if they have further questions.
Full Professor, Département de science politique, Université Laval, As an Individual
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Mr. Christopherson, do you want to present your revised motion? We only have about five minutes. We'll see if we can get started, at least.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
When you informed me we weren't going to get to this today, I didn't want to delay, so I've given up my time in the rotation to move this.
I'll read the amended motion. By the way, the formulary part is taken directly from the discussions that PROC had on BOIE. I just transposed the particulars. It reads as follows:
That, in relation to its study on the creation of an independent commissioner responsible for leaders' debates, the Committee allow one Member who is not a member of a recognized party to participate in the hearings in a temporary, non-voting capacity when it is conducting the study, and that the Member be allowed 5 minutes during the second round of questions in which to address witnesses.
Again, this is what we did when were studying BOIE and we wanted to make sure that everybody had a say since everyone was impacted and committee, you asked me to go back and bring language, so I've done that, Chair. I put this in front of the committee, and hopefully we can support it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
While people are discussing, I'm going to ask you some questions.
How will the independents be organized? Will they be allowed at in camera meetings? Will they be discussing the draft report? Would they be provided all documents from the committee?
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
My first response would be, if there are answers to how we answered those questions vis-à-vis BOIE, I would say the same.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
We're just trying to figure it out right now. A change was made, and what we're looking at is not what was discussed. What was the change?
Liberal
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
In addition to everything that we already have, so no one's losing time.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Would our meetings last until five minutes later than the current end time? They wouldn't wrap at 1:00 ; they'd wrap up at 1:05. Or are we taking the time out of something else?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
That's a question for the committee. Will we just reduce the time of the questions and answers or do we go to 1:05, five minutes later?
