Making the Debates Happen: a Television Producer’s Perspective

Abstract

With about half-an-hour to go the 1997 French language leaders’ television debate came to an abrupt and dramatic halt when the moderator fell off her chair into a deep faint. That the dramatic off-camera fall occurred just as Prime Minister Jean Chretien was being challenged with his most politically sensitive question of the campaign added much more tension to the heart-stopping moment.² Even the carefully planned down-to-the-last-detail Canadian debate system was not ready for this. When Claire Lamarche, the elegant and dynamic television talk show host from Quebec, hit the floor with a thump, everybody froze. None of the five debaters all standing within five meters of the stricken woman went to her aid. Jean-Francois Lepine, the journalist, finished asking his question and told the television audience that Lamarche had fainted. Then there was a call for help.

The author, an executive producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television news department, was the lead negotiator for the Broadcast Consortium which negotiated, staged, and produced the 1993 and 1997 federal debates. Details in this chapter come from his experience in that role and his coverage of major Canadian political events during the past 20 years.