Like other bloggers around the world, I’m participating in Blog Action Day today to raise awareness about the environment.

Kinda.

I’m currently a card-carrying member of the Green Party of Canada, and make a monthly contribution to support their cause. Like other Greeners (…?) I was dismayed that my party wasn’t allowed to participate in the “official” televised debate for last week’s Provincial Election. But thanks to Ted Rogers (of all people!) I was able to watch an on-demand debate featuring all the hopefuls for my very own riding.

It was here that I got to see Dan King, my local Green Party candidate, in action. And he absolutely blew it for me with two unforgivable gaffes:

Answer the damn question! The single biggest issue that makes any political debate in this country so unwatchable is that the candidates don’t even bother answering the questions put to them, and instead “spin” them into their own party agenda, ultimately a mere two to three talking points repeated ad nauseum for the great unwashed.

Now granted the vast majority of the electorate is lazy and/or stupid (but surely not you, dear reader!) and needs to hear something tens if not hundreds of times before it sinks in. But these low-functioning citizens will be likely eschew a spirited exchange of political views for something more along the lines of something like According to Jim anyway, so there’s really no reason to dumb these debates down.

I endured about fifteen minutes of the “official” debate before I got mad as hell and couldn’t take it anymore; the Trinity-Spadina debates, however, kept my interest for the entire hour. Unfortunately both PC candidate Tyler Currie (no relation) and Dan King tried to hijack the debate to serve their own talking points, and were rightfully called out by moderator Dale Goldhawk for doing so.

A loser says what? I heard this phrase at least twice during the debate, so I’m pretty sure I can repeat it verbatim:

“In Trinity-Spadina there is no vote wasted, unless it’s a vote for John Tory…”

With that one sentence Dan King basically told all the voters in the riding that it was okay to vote for NDP incumbent Rosario Marchese, which is exactly what I did.

My own political beliefs are much more in line with the Greens — pro-environment, anti-union, pro-open-source software in schools, and so on. But in my opinion Mr. King’s got some boning up to do if he wants to be a serious contender on the political stage.

… Maybe next time?