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5/22/2012
A provincial democracy watchdog is calling for change after looking at some numbers from the latest election.
The Foundation for Democratic Advancement says the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties received almost twice the coverage of the seven other registered parties during the last two weeks of the recent election campaign. That's 65.2 percent, compared to just 34.8 percent for everyone else.
FDA Executive Director Stephen Garvey says numbers like these aren't isolated to this election.
"I think it has a lot to do with the process," said Garvey, who added that the PC and Wildrose are perhaps more media savvy than the other groups. "Alberta's public & private media is not regulated during the 28 day period, it's basically a free-for-all. The FDA supports freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but we think during an election period there has to be some kind of balance."
Garvey says it's worth looking at how other countries handle these situations, and suggests there should be a code of conduct for media during election campaigns.
"Hopefully this is going to create a discourse on this and help encourage positive direction in terms of Alberta democracy," said Garvey. "That's what we're supporting, we want to improve Alberta democracy."
Alison Redford's PC party won a majority in the April election, picking up 62 seats to the Wildrose's 17. (jk)
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