ABSTRACT
The first leaders’ debate in Canada was held on 9 June 1968 and it was an inauspicious start. Party leaders tried their best to avoid debates and it took almost 20 years before they became a regular occurrence in Canada’s federal election campaigns. By 2015, there was growing dissatisfaction with leaders’ debates in Canada where critics argued that there were too many participants; the format stifles substantive issues and voters are losing interest. Moreover, with plummeting TV ratings, the media also became frustrated by having to cede valuable airtime for an event that Canadians seemed to care little about As a result, the Government of Canada set up an Independent Commission to look at the future of the leaders’ debates and suggested changes for the 2019 election. This chapter examines the proposed changes and isolates what impact, if any, they had on voters in the 2019 election. As part of this effort, I present findings of a quantitative study conducted during the 2019 Canadian Federal Election campaign and offer the latest impressions about this old but important media political event in Canada.
