The Pollcast: Debating leaders' election debates

The CBCPollcast, hosted by CBC poll analyst ric Grenier, explores the world of electoralpolitics,political polls and the trends they reveal.

The Liberals are proposing to setup an independent commission to organize leaders' debates in future federal elections.

But it is a proposal that comes with many complications. Who would be on this commission? How would the debates be organized? And, the thorniest question of all, who would be invited to participate and who would be left out?

• Wherry: MPs' dilemma: Who gets in to leaders' debates?
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In every federal election since 1984, leaders' debates of one kind or another have been held. Traditionally, a consortium of Canada's major broadcasters including the CBC have organized the events.

But in 2015, the decision of former prime minister Stephen Harper to reject theconsortium and invite proposals from other outlets and organizationsled to Tom Mulcair, then the leader of the New Democrats, saying he wouldn't participate in debates without Harper.

The result was that five debates were held over the course of the campaign, including a French-language debate organized by the consortium, but they weren't broadcast to a wide audience. In total, the cumulative viewership of these five debates was lower than the single English-language consortium debate in 2011.

The government's proposal to institutionalize the debates, however, means the questions of when to hold them, how many to hold, where they would take place, who would pay for them, who would moderate themand which leaders would be invited to participate will have to be answered. And those questions particularly the last one don't come with easy answers.

To discuss the debate surrounding the debates, Pollcasthost ric Grenier is joined by the CBC's Aaron Wherry.

Listen to the full discussion above or subscribe to the CBCPollcast and listen to past episodes.

Follow ric Grenierand Aaron Wherry on Twitter.