Politics and the mechanics of democracy will evolve tonight as Canada witnesses a new kind of leaders’ debate. The back and forth may not be new but the “boutique” nature of the exercise and its streaming presence to millions of computers and phones is a sharp change. Previous elections saw the CBC, CTV and Global own the debate process. The debates, usually no more than one in each official language, took place on television only. They happened late in the campaign because parties didn’t want to be dealing with any possible gaffes during the final hours before voting. This all changed mainly because the Conservative’s insisted on something else. The process was opened up to smaller producers. The debate tonight (Thursday, August 6, 2015) is being produced by Maclean’s magazine, which is owned by Rogers. The debate has limited TV exposure but it will be streamed to vast numbers of voters on the Internet. Macleans has a page all ready to go. It will also be seen on Ctiy, OMNI-1, OMNI-2 and CPAC. Macleans and Rogers will offer the streaming debate in five languages: English, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi The debate will also be heard on radio — 680News, 570News, 680News.com, 1310News.com, News1130.com and News 957.com There are more boutique type debates coming. The Globe and Mail and Google have a debate focused on the economy scheduled.
