A "fundamental axiom" ignored: Harper sidesteps Bentham and the Consortium Broadcasters

By stirring up debate on the election debates, and by possibly not attending debates managed by the Consortium (CBC, CTV and Global TV) with a potential of about 14 million viewers – or almost half of Canada’s population - Harper has thumbed his nose at a tradition of British Utilitarian thinking.

… it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.
                     Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government, 1776

… the good and happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members, of any state is the great standard by which everything relating to the state must finally be determined.
                      Joseph Priestly, Essay on Government, 1768[1]

… that action is best which secures the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
                      Francis Hutcheson, Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, 1725

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[1] See Leslie Stephen, The English Utilitarians, Vol 1 (London: Continuum International Publishing, 2005), p. 178 footnote.