While other countries allow everyone to participate in televised meetings, Canada's Greens remain despondent after a new ban.

(Angus Reid Global Scan) Mario Canseco - Later this week, interested Canadians will watch the four leaders of the parties represented in the House of Commons discuss several topics on television, in two different days and in two different languages. These debates have long been an important component of political campaigns all over the world.

Last year, Green party leader Jim Harris tried unsuccessfully to join the televised meeting. The five broadcasters who organize these events said they would only extend invitations to parties with elected members in the House of Commons.

Harris faced a tough fight last year, as some polling companies were not even listing the Greens as an option in their surveys. After winning 4.3 per cent of the vote, his party qualified for a yearly allowance of more than $750,000 U.S. from the public purse.

In this electoral campaign, the Green party will be once again left out of the televised debates. The terrible mixed message this isolation sends is that the Greens are good enough to receive funding from Canadian taxpayers, but not good enough to merit an extra camera from Canadian broadcasters. Throughout the past few days, there have been several explanations—ranging from the technical to the bizarre—on why it was decided that Harris will not accompany Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Giles Duceppe and Jack Layton into the living rooms of Canadians.

Some critics say that political parties should have elected at least one person to the lower house in order to be invited to these debates. Indeed, this was the case of both Reform and the Bloc Québécois in 1993, but all of their seats came from by-elections or defections. If former Liberal David Kilgour and former New Democrat Bev Desjarlais—who left their respective caucuses because of their position on same-sex marriage—suddenly decided to form a party, one of them would become leader, while at the same time holding a seat in the House of Commons. Would this be reason enough to warrant an extra spot on the television set? Who knows.

Another excuse we often hear for the exclusion of the Greens is the fact that the addition of another person would make the televised meeting long and tiresome. Before jumping into that conclusion, Canada should take a look at how other nations have managed to hold bigger debates.

Scandinavian countries invite every party leader to their debates, and no broadcaster ever complained about technical difficulties. In 2005, five leaders participated in several meetings, not only during the campaign, but throughout the course of the year. Norwegian voters get to see their actual leaders discussing plans and policies on nights and weekends, while in Canada, viewers are usually subjected to proxies.

In the 2000 presidential debate in Mexico, candidate Gilberto Rincón Gallardo of the now defunct Social Democracy (SD) was the contender who set the tone, taking on the leaders of the so-called "established" political parties with his remarks about several topics, particularly two long-standing taboos of Mexican society: racism and discrimination.

Rincón Gallardo provided a spark to what would have otherwise been a boring presentation. When the second debate took place in a format where only the three frontrunners participated—instead of all six contenders—the dullness and ambiguousness returned. It would have been easier to have Vicente Fox and the two eventual losers read from a campaign leaflet. At that particular time, Mexican viewers realized that debates can indeed be long and tiresome, not because of the number of persons who require make-up, but due to the absence of clear ideas and pitiable hosting skills.

If Norway and Mexico can find a way to feature all the leaders in their debates, Canada's five broadcasters must certainly be up to the task. They have had more than four persons in a television set before.

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