I am not a Green party member, nor a member of any party at this time. Even if I were affiliated elsewhere I'm confident that in the interest of a more wholesome democracy, I would call upon every Canadian, regardless of political affiliation, to demand Green Party leader Elizabeth May included in this election's Leader debates. This country needs more democracy and its the right thing to do.

If you want to take action, sign this on-line petition.

Here's a party that ran candidates in every riding in the country and received almost 700,000 votes in the last election. Including Quebeckers, who have the regional Bloc to mess up statistics, one of every twenty-two voters voted green in the last election. Excluding la belle province that ratio is even higher. They came closer to winning seats than they ever have. The Green Party jumped over a significant hurdle, earning sufficient votes to earn them a spot among the other large parties whereby they receive public funding based on the number of votes received. Climate change and environmentalism clearly is in the public eye in a way that it has never been before, and they have always been there to champion the issue.

I think their case for inclusion was more than strong enough on its own, and didn't require the stunt (which I do not support) leader Elizabeth May pulled last week in convincing ousted former Liberal West Vancouver Sunshine Coast MP Blair Wilson (who hasn't a hope of being re-elected) to become the Green Party's "first" MP on the eve of an election.

Media reports indicate that the broadcast consortium which runs the debate decided against including May because of threats from Stephen Harper and Jack Layton that they'd pull out. Broadcasters claim they bowed to pressure from the Conservatives and NDP as they didn't want to air a debate between only May and Dion.

"There's been no new party elected to the House of Commons since the last election, and one of the people who wanted to participate in the debate is supporting one of the others for prime minister," said Layton, referring to May's endorsement of Dion. "The networks decided they will stick with the old rules and we support that, had they not so decided we would have had to go back and think about what all that means." Jack Layton

"We said we would not accept the invitation to participate because the Greens did not have an elected member of Parliament", said Brad Lavigne, NDP spokesperson.

Duceppe was happy with the outcome, claiming "the rules are the rules". Only there are no rules - the consortium makes its own rules up. Harper claimed May could not participate because she was in effect another Liberal candidate, which is rubbish. The Liberals have as much to fear from May and the Greens as any party. Even if it were true, in past years we did in fact see two "conservative" parties in debates. The Reform and Progressive Conservatives both had leaders in debate; the Canadian Alliance and PC's likewise. Reform had Preston Manning in debate when they had only one MP, Deborah Gray, which is all the more galling because like the Bloc at the time Reform was a regional party that did not run across the country.

Whether one agrees with the Blair Wilson floor crossing or not, he was still an elected MP when he joined the Greens. The Bloc earned their first invite to the debate in exactly the same way.

Imagine that, the media being pushed around by Harper and Layton. Ridiculous! The media have sufficient influence and power to make sure that Harper and Layton's non-attendance is a non-starter. With every reporter in the country hounding Harper and Layton "what are you afraid of" there is no way either would be able to take a pass on the debate without serious risk to their campaigns.

An election should expose Canadians to the broadest diversity of ideas. Greens have paid their dues. We, the public, are paying them to exist, like we pay all major parties. Lets see what they have to say.

Public backlash could make this undemocratic exclusion from the debates go away. Start your non-polluting alternative-energy engines... go!

PS: My sense is that public backlash might hurt some parties electorally if they don't allow May into the debates. Times seem to be changing.