Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee, for inviting me to appear today.
I would like to thank the chair, as well as the distinguished members of the committee for inviting me to take part in their work today.
Despite being based at Emerson College in Boston since August 2014, I am a Canadian citizen who completed my master's studies at the information and communication department, Université Laval, and his Ph.D. studies at Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication, not too far from where you are today.
My research interests lie at the intersection of political communication, journalism, social media, and electoral campaigning. In recent years, my research activities have led me to take a closer look at the format of election debates during elections.
Since the first televised leaders' debate during the 1968 Canadian federal elections, televised debates have become a pivotal moment for campaigns in Canada. On the one hand, debates provide political party leaders with a unique opportunity to reach out to and connect with a large portion of the electorate in both official languages. They enable them to make their positions on various political issues heard. On the other hand, they represent an important source of information for members of the public. They allow them to get more details about the electoral issues and to compare and contrast the positions of party leaders. Some leaders' debates are a one-stop shop for voters to get information and make up their minds for election day.
Several academic studies, some older and some more recent, have confirmed the impact of leaders' debates on the public's attitudes, levels of mobilization, and voting intentions. Despite in-depth changes in the expansion and diversification of the media environment, as well as the rise of new generations of citizens with different preferences during the last 50 years, the format and mechanics of leaders' debates have remained largely unchanged. Also, the viewership of leaders' debates has progressively declined during this time. In fact, the leaders' debates during the 2015 Canadian federal elections had a very low viewership compared with leaders' debates during past elections.
It should be noted that during this time period, the campaigning tactics deployed by political parties and candidates have also evolved significantly. This has obviously impacted how voters have access to information that can in some cases prove pivotal in their ability to choose a candidate to support on election day.
It is therefore possible to ask the following questions. Is the format of leaders' debates and the way they are organized still adapted to the current social, political, and media environment in Canada? Should it be reviewed in order to better serve Canadians?
While I don't have a silver bullet to answer these questions, I hope my remarks and my answers to your questions today can offer some food for thought, especially as you're considering the creation of an independent commissioner responsible for leaders' debates.
I can tell you that, first, younger adults are flocking to social media to acquire and share information about politics as well as to engage in political discussions with their peers. This dynamic is particularly prevalent on the night of leaders' debates, a phenomenon known as dual screening. A growing number of viewers are following the live broadcast of the debate on the TV screen while sharing insights as well as interacting with their peers on social media through their computer or mobile device such as a tablet or a smart phone. Leaders have also embraced this dynamic. For example, the leader of the Green Party of Canada, Elizabeth May, who was not included in the leaders' debate during the 2015 federal election, turned to Twitter to broadcast her views as well as share her thoughts on the position of other party leaders during the debate. In sum, it can be argued that the dual-screening dynamic is leading to a situation where there is a debate between political candidates on the TV screen and a larger, more decentralized public debate online.
Second, recent decades have been marked by the rise of a generation of citizens with a new set of preferences, interests, and objectives. It is possible to question whether these citizens are adequately served by the more traditional patterns of political communication, including leaders' debates during campaigns, as well as the structure of what we consider to be mainstream political discourse. In other words, are leaders' debates serving their needs and wants adequately? Are they contributing to making citizens less interested and engaged in the formal political process?
I believe that while leaders' debates still represent a vital aspect of election campaigns, and to some degree democratic life in Canada, their format and the way in which they are organized is no longer adapted to the current social, political, and media environment in Canada. More importantly, the situation described earlier in my opening remarks represents, in my opinion, one dimension of a broader debate about the growing disconnect between political elites and members of civil society in Canada. It should be noted that some politicians have deployed efforts in order to address this situation and reshape the way in which they reach out to, and engage with, members of the public.
I suspect that the creation of an independent commissioner responsible for leaders' debates, or institutionalizing the organization of leaders' debates, would be beneficial in addressing some of these concerns and those raised by others who will be appearing in front of the committee. I am unsure that media organizations are in the best position to effect change that would be beneficial to the public and democratic life in Canada. The independent commissioner could act as a neutral arbitrator who could take into account the wants and needs of all players in the context of leaders' debates in Canada: political parties and candidates, media organizations that broadcast the debates, and members of the public. In other words, an independent commissioner could provide a vision that would ensure that leaders' debates are adapted to the current and future social, political, and media environment in Canada.
Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee, I hope my appearance will be beneficial to your work. I want to thank you again for inviting me today. Please note that I stand ready to answer any questions you may have, in both official languages.
Mr. Chair, distinguished members of the committee, I hope my participation will be helpful to you in your work.
Thank you for the invitation to join you today and I am available to answer your questions in both official languages.