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Whew. It's been a tiring few evenings here in Canada as we had not one but two leadership debates this week. Wednesday evening saw us sitting around the television listening to the Canadian Leadership French debate, or more correctly for a lot of people, listening to translators translate the French leadership debate. Thursday night was the English Leadership debate. What were people watching for in the debates? The new roundtable format, how Elizabeth May would do in her first debates, what the leaders were going to say about the economy and of course reasons to vote for any of them.
The Players:
Even though Canada has more than dozen federally registered parties there are only five represented in the debates. In order to participate in the debates the party must have at least one elected member. The Green Party almost didn't make it but a sitting independent affliated themselves with the Green Party shortly before the election was called. Even then, the party had to fight it's way into the debates.
- Gilles Duceppe - leader of the Bloc Québécois. The Bloc is left, runs candidates only in Quebec, and its platform is largely focused on Quebec sovereignty.
- Stéphane Dion - leader of the Liberal Party. The Liberal party is left and historically power bounces back between them and the Conservatives. This is Dion's first election as Liberal leader.
- Jack Layton - leader of the NDP. The NDP party is left (are you seeing a trend here?) and has never held power in Canada although they have been gaining in popularity over the past decade.
- Elizabeth May - leader of the Green Party. The Green Party again is left, and May is the only female leader in the debate. The Green Party has no elected seats and has the most to gain from the debates.
- Stephen Harper - leader of the Conservative Party. The Conseratives are the lone right-leaning party in the debates and are the party that currently hold power in Canada with a minority government. They are hoping to gain a majority.
The French Debate:
This was the first experience with the new debate format. Gone are the podiums of yesteryear and instead we have a big table with a maple leaf in the middle. Five leaders, one moderator and as many translators all talking over one another left me feeling dizzy and with a headache by the end of two hours. At times it felt more like a tempermental family dinner than a debate. Because the debate was in French there was a lot of focus on Quebec and Duceppe was in his element. Dion debated with more confidence in French than English and Harper and Layton did their best to out French the other. Leading into the debate we were warned that May's French abilities were still a work in progress but I think she exceeded most peoples expectations. Susanna Ng who blogs at Chinese in Vancouver was impressed by May and thought that Dion seemed confident and assertive and that Harper didn't seem to have much fight in him.
The English Debate:
I found myself warming up the roundtable format. I think it's easier to follow when listening to the person's actual voice rather than the translators (although getting translators that didn't all sound the same might help). Harper, Layton and May all seemed, understandably, more comfortable debating in English, Dion a bit less so. Layton got in a few good jabs at both Dion and Harper.
The person who perhaps was under the most scrutiny was Elizabeth May - would she be able to convince voters that the Green Party is not a one issue party? She seems to have done a good job. A number of bloggers are giving her kudos. YappaDingDing gave props to Elizabeth May saying that she nailed every issue. Michelle's a Mom says that May proved herself at the debate table.
At the end of the day, Elizabeth May is the clear winner in my mind. She's smart, she knows her stuff, she's well prepared and she's more than just a one trick pony.
Perhaps one of the most honest moments of the night was when the leaders were asked what the first thing they'd do if elected Prime Minister. Gilles Duceppe, whose party runs only in Quebec, said point blank that he would not be elected Prime Minister. Since the party runs only in Quebec the most votes they could ever win would be 75, the most they have won is 54. That's not to say they aren't
