Have a question for the party leaders? Canadians are asked to send their questions to question@electiondebate2011.ca.
The English language leaders debate will be held on April 12 from 7-9 p.m. ET, and the French debate will be held one day later, on April 13 from 8-10 p.m. ET.
The two-hour debates will both begin with a question from a Canadian that will launch a six-minute one-on-one debate between two leaders. The segment will conclude with a debate on that same topic open to all four leaders.
Global will air the debate, along with other Broadcasting Consortium members CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV and TVA.
TVO anchor Steve Paikin will moderate the English leaders debate, while Radio-Canada’s Anne-Marie Dussault and Paul Larocque of TVA Nouvelles will co-moderate the French debate, the Broadcasting Consortium announced last week.
"I’m extremely honoured to have been asked to moderate the leaders’ debate. And I can tell you from past experience, it’s the most nerve-racking assignment one can have," Paikin told Global News in an email.
"While I’m very pleased with the size of the audience we have on ‘The Agenda’ on TVO, the reality is, more than three million people will watch this debate, making it by far the most viewed thing I’ve ever been associated with. One would not want to screw up in front of that many people."
"The goal is always the same: to ensure the participants are all treated fairly," Paikin says. "The debate producer, Mark Bulgutch, once told me what I must strive for is to be like a referee at a hockey game, whose name no one remembers the day after. That’s how you know you did a good job. If the referee becomes part of the story, then you know you blew it.
"I’ll be trying hard again to be utterly forgettable the next day."
Comments