By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 19, 2015
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May dominates debate on Twitter
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was not in attendance at the Globe and Mail’s leader debate in Calgary on Thursday, but on Twitter she may have come out on top.
May used Twitter to answer the same questions faced by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at the Globe and Mails leader debate.
The social media company filmed May’s responses, retorts and fact-checks in a Victoria church and posted them to Twitter.
In total, May’s video posts received 14,000 retweets and favourites, and she gained 3,900 new followers.
May’s account also received the most mentions on Twitter at the beginning of the debate, topping Trudeau by more than 2,000.
In an appearance on CTV’s Power Play earlier on Thursday, May criticized the diversity of the debate.
“(I am) participating at some distance, but perhaps we can make our way into the old boys club yet,” May said in an appearance on CTV’s Power Play earlier on Thursday.
She continued to mock the makeup of event on Twitter.
In an appearance on CTV’s Power Play earlier on Thursday, May criticized the diversity of the debate.
“(I am) participating at some distance, but perhaps we can make our way into the old boys club yet,” May said in an appearance on CTV’s Power Play earlier on Thursday.
She continued to mock the makeup of event on Twitter.
Before the debate, May didn’t shy away from taking jabs at the Globe and Mail event, which she called a “bogus, corporate, private debate.”
Despite May’s exclusion, Sean Humphrey, the Globe and Mail’s vice-president of marketing, has defended the debate’s format.
May has also been left off the podium at the Munk Debates on foreign policy in Toronto and a French-language debate on TVA.
The Green Party Leader criticized Harper and Mulcair for their plans to skip the traditional televised leader’s debate, which is scheduled for Oct. 7. (Source: CTV News)
SATIRE FACT CHECK
By Bruce MacKinnon
By Terry Mosher
Same take by two of Canada’s great editorial cartoonists. Excluding political leaders based on their gender fits well with the stuffy old image of “Canada’s National Newspaper” from a bygone era. Was former NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin excluded in debates in the 1980s, or Alexa McDonough in the 90’s, or Kim Campbell, or more recently Pauline Marois, Kathleen Wynne, or Rachel Notley, just to name a few? No. With respects to my cartoonist colleagues, playing the gender card in this case is a bit disingenuous – Women have been leading political parties throughout Canada for the last 40 years. It’s not about Ms. May’s gender that excluded her from the debate, it’s her fringe party’s low ranking in the polls. It’s also why for every 500 or so main three party cartoons we satirists serve up only a few that actually include the Green Party. When a veteran politician of nearly 10 years finds defence in editorial cartoons then maybe, just maybe, the gig for that politician is up.