Election debates from around the world

I have just seen BBC News: New pressure for TV leader debate which reports that the prospect of the next election featuring a debate between the party leaders is getting stronger because Sky News is willing to go ahead with one even if any one leader refuses to take part.

Such debates are most familiar from US Presidential elections, but they take place in many countries around the world, including countries that have a similar parliamentary system to the UK where leaders regularly go head to head in parliament. Here are a few examples courtesy of YouTube:

First we have the start of the leaders' debate from the 2007 Australia election, featuring John Howard (Liberal/National Coalition) and Kevin Rudd (Labor):
Next we have the start of the leaders' English speaking debate from the 2008 Canadian election featuring Stéphane Dion (Liberal), Gilles Duceppe (Bloc Québécois), Stephen Harper (Conservative), Jack Layton (New Democratic Party) and Elizabeth May (Green):

UPDATE: This clip is no longer available on YouTube but can be seen on the CBC website. Many thanks to forumer Severian for this link.

And thirdly we have the start of the leaders' debate from the 2008 New Zealand election featuring Helen Clark (Labour) and John Key (National):
Quite a mixture of formats but all show that the basics can work and offer a broader scope than parliamentary questions. (And the Canadian line-up including Duceppe suggests it would be possible to include the Scottish Nationalists & Plaid Cymru, although I'm not sure if the Northern Ireland parties could be so easily incorporated.)

So will we have a leader' debate at the next election? We shall see...

Stephen Harper survives

Bad news for John Key. If he wants to win the next ConservativeHome contest for favourite centre-right elected leader in the world today, he will now have to actually fight for it instead of having a one-horse race.

For in Canada the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has survived, after the announcement that the Liberal Party would support it on the budget as amended, instead of trying to bring it down and install an unelected axis of weasel coalition. (Globe and Mail: Tories put on probation; coalition breaks up, Calgary Herald: Tories support Grit budget amendment & Reuters: Canadian government survives budget crisis) This says it all:

"The coalition is dead, it's finished, it's over," said Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, one of the parties that had signed the agreement.

And so ends one of the most extraordinary incidents not just in Canadian history (although it's amazing to find Canadians, normally such a well-adjusted relaxed people, getting angry over something other than an ice-hockey match) but in the entire Westminster System. Around the world many constitutional scholars both professional and amateur having been watching the events closely for what they reveal about how much the system can take in practice. But in the final analysis they show that democracy has triumphed over backroom deals.