Callers to a Maritimes talk-show gave Green leader Elizabeth May overwhelming support Tuesday for her bid to participate in the leaders debates.
Ms. May spent almost the entire day on the phone in her New Glasgow, N.S. campaign office fielding media calls from across the country as radio shows assessed the fallout of the decision to exclude the Greens from the debates
“I'm grateful for the outpouring of outrage that we're seeing across the country,” said Ms. May in response to one of the many calls of support on a CBC Maritimes call-in show.
It is a sentiment that is backed by polling. A survey by Angus Reid Strategies found that 66 per cent of respondents agreed Ms. May should take part, with high support across the country.
Throughout Tuesday's interviews, Ms. May lashed out at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton for threatening to boycott the debates if she were allowed to participate.
The consortium of broadcasters cited those kind of threats as the reason for their decision not to include the Green Party.
Ms. May is fighting an uphill battle campaigning in Nova Scotia, which has not been one of the party's strongest regions. Yet area callers were virtually unanimous in their support.
One caller named Bethanny called for a movement to boycott the debates over the consortium's decision and defended Ms. May's favourable comments toward Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.
“I think co-operation is needed in this present world,” she said. “I am sick of this childish behaviour where parties are just by nature supposed to be opposing each other all the time.”
Ms. May spent a large part of her interviews explaining why she has said Mr. Dion would make a better Prime Minister than Mr. Harper. Ms. May said she is simply being honest and realistic about her own chances to become Prime Minister in this election. She also criticized NDP Leader Jack Layton for claiming he could realistically win the election.
Further, she said Mr. Layton's decision to help bring down the Paul Martin Liberal government in 2005 on the eve of a key climate-change conference shows the NDP Leader puts his own partisan interests ahead of issues like climate change.
“I think there's a level of partisanship that exceeds sense, and that's not a place I ever want to go,” she said.
The Greens argue they meet the broadcasting consortium's previously mentioned criteria of having at least one MP now that Independent MP Blair Wilson recently joined the Greens.
The party is seeking to block the debates from happening without her by seeking an injunction through the CRTC broadcast regulator. Failing that, the Greens will appeal to the Federal Court.
Ms. May said she is hoping that Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton will reverse their objections to her participation in response to what she says is shaping up as a strong public backlash.
Strategic Counsel polling reported Tuesday in the Globe and Mail shows Liberal support bleeding to the Greens. But Ms. May suggested the NDP and the Conservatives have common cause in keeping her out because she's winning over their supporters.
Mr. Layton said Tuesday he is not afraid to debate Ms. May.
His party had threatened to pull out of the event if the Green Leader was permitted to take part, but Mr. Layton said it was the television networks that were responsible for preventing her participation.
“The networks have made a decision now. They've decided to use the rules that were used the last time,” he told reporters during a campaign stop in Regina.
“There's been no material change in the House of Commons, no party has elected any new members and we have the situation of one participant wanting to come in who supports another participant in the debates so we're ready to work with the decision that's been made.”
When it was suggested that shutting out Ms. May might appear to be a sexist act on the part of the political establishment, Mr. Layton said: “Our party, of course, had two women participating in national debates and they did so by having members elected to the House of Commons.”
With a report from Tenille Bonoguore and Gloria Galloway
