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Opinion
Politics
Election 2015

An Open Letter to Empty Debate Chairs

Calling out cowardly candidates refusing to speak for themselves.

Michal C. Moore 8 Oct 2015TheTyee.ca

Michal Moore is a former elected official from Monterey County, California and energy commissioner of the State of California. He is director of energy and environmental policy at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

Couldn't make it to the public debate? A birthday bash you couldn't miss? Laundry you forgot to drop off? Sick dog? Perhaps you were vacationing out of country during the election. Hey, happens to all of us.

Really? If you are running for public office in this country, and you don't show up for a public debate, you owe everyone in your riding a convincing reason why you deserve the office in the first place.

In a democracy, one of the most hard-won and treasured features is that we get to know, understand, and support (or not) the candidates who will represent us. We want to know the leadership of course, but we also want to know if you are the kind of candidate who will speak up, challenge convention, or slavishly vote for the blue button or red button when it lights up.

You have a responsibility to represent yourself in the public forum, and it's worse than "shame on you" if you don't show up. You don't deserve the seat, and voters should shame you in the most visible way we can. Such a cowardly response to the call of leadership suggests they would rather be absent than show themselves ignorant, poor speakers, someone who can't think on the spot, or someone who only parrots public relations-tested spin that looks and sounds like cream of wheat cereal.

Running for office is a tough job -- sometimes far more taxing than pushing a vote button. I know, I ran for elected office and was exhausted at the end of the race each time.

In the end though, I earned that seat. I said what I believed in, and struggled to answer and deal with hypothetical and real problems I was asked about. I simply don't trust candidates who won't make the effort to say who they really are, and what they really stand for -- or against.

How to debate a no-show

So for any candidates who appear next to an empty chair in the future, I say don't bother with the plastic potted plant or the cardboard caricature of the missing debater. Collect their public statements (there must be some of those around beyond the yard signs) put them on placards and randomly select them to challenge during the debate.

Give up a bit of your own time and move to the empty chair -- offer those placards in place of the silent ghost who somehow got a message it was better to miss the meeting than reveal their own feelings, reactions or knowledge of the issue under debate. They might just show up next time and speak for themselves.

If you don't show up, you haven't shown me any respect, and you don't deserve mine.  [Tyee]

Read more: Politics, Election 2015

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