A bit of a late posting, but I've been busy with the CTV election blog too (six more days, and this blog gets my full attention again):

An excerpt from the Jan. 16 story:

But during the current Canadian federal election campaign, Canada's television satirists have faced an issue that has never troubled "The Daily Show." An agreement between Canada's main television networks and its largest political parties blocks the shows from using film clips from the televised leaders' debates (although the film is still available to conventional news and current affairs shows).

"It speaks for the parties' great respect for the power of satirical shows that they would demand this," said Roger Abbott, an Air Farce performer and writer. Mr. Abbott said that Air Farce considered declaring itself a news program, but in the end its cast used one of its specialties - impersonation - to create mock versions of the debates.

The four debates, which alternate between French and English, are produced by a consortium of the CBC and three private broadcasters. While the restrictions on debate clips were a surprise to Mr. Abbott, a CBC spokesman, Jason MacDonald, who also speaks for the consortium, said that the rule dates back several years; the networks, he explained, agreed to the politicians' demand in exchange for a promise that campaigns would not use debate clips in their ads.

Disclosure: I work for CTV News, which is a member of the broadcast consortium.