OTTAWA – A group of the country’s major broadcast news organizations have reaffirmed their commitment to organizing debates for the upcoming 2015 Federal Election, despite a report that the federal Conservative Party is refusing to participate.
The Broadcast Consortium, made up of CBC News, ICI Radio-Canada Télé, CTV News and Global News, issued a statement Tuesday promising to once again work together to ensure that the debates are offered to as many Canadians as possible “in the best interest of democracy”.
The statement appears to come in response to a Globe and Mail report that says the federal Conservative Party is opting instead to take part in as many as five independently staged debates in the run-up to the fall federal election. The report adds that neither the NDP nor the Liberals have said that they would reject the traditional consortium-run debates.
"The leaders' debates have served as important moments of every federal election campaign during which they have been presented", said Broadcast Consortium chair Jennifer McGuire, in the statement. "It's important that Canadians across the country, in both French and English, have an opportunity before they cast their vote, to see Party leaders, live and face-to-face, debate the future direction of the country".
During the 2011 Leaders' debates, over 10 million Canadians tuned in to the English-language debates and over 4 million watched the French-language debates offered by Canada's major television networks during prime time and on the web, the Consortium added. Those numbers could be even higher this time around thanks to new partners and innovations.
