Canadian Election: Leader Debate Performance

These are my personal observations about the debate tonight between the leaders of the four major Canadian federal political parties. They probably come with my personal biases included, but I'll make an effort to be fair. But in general, I honestly can say that none of the leaders stood out as particularly bad or particularly good.

Paul Martin

He looked pretty good for most of the debate. A little shaky on occasion with some stumbly moments, but nothing too poor. He got zapped briefly by Harper over budget questions, but had a very good come back. He did, however, get hit quite effectively by Layton when Martin tried to dismiss Layton with a quip about Layton's handlers, while they were debating missile defense. He also mangled the beginning of his final statement. But all in all I don't think this debate hurt him, and it may even have helped a little since he withstood most of the blows that came his way. The harping on the sponsorship scandal by the other candidates felt tired. I got the distinct impression that the issue has been worn away at somewhat.

Stephen Harper

He didn't do nearly as well as I had expected him to. While I don't think he did a poor job, he played a lot of dodge ball, and he was only effective once in redirecting the issues when he went after Layton over NAFTA, but even then Layton more than held his own. The impression I was left with of Harper was of someone not entirely there, and I can't exactly put my finger on the problem yet. Harper didn't seem especially grounded I suppose. But that said, I don't think his debate performance will hurt him especially, but I definitely don't think he gained ground on this one.

Jack Layton

Way too “Guy Smiley” for a lot of the debate. He had the “Troy MacClure” thing going; and which ever of his handlers came up with that approach should be drawn and quartered. The only time that facade really dropped was when Martin tried to dismiss Layton with his handler quip during the missile defense question. Layton really put his boots on, and gave Martin a good kick in the pants over that one. Layton should let that passion out more often. Overall I really can't do a proper read here, because on the one hand Layton had his plastic moments, but he did he did have a touch of fire every now and then.

Gilles Duceppe

He was hard to understand at times, and he seemed out of place. I, frankly would have much rather seen Harris the Green party leader in the debate. I'm afraid I didn't really find Duceppe's performance influential at all.

So to sum up: I'd say if anyone benefitted it may have been Layton, but only thinly. It's hard for me to judge, because I've followed the election closely, and I know the platforms of all the parties, so there was nothing new for me. People coming into viewing the debates with little prior knowledge will likely see things differently. I'll have to ask around among friends and aquaintences for their impressions. Some of my bias is also probably creeping in, because I'm going either Green or NDP.

I will say that the debate has not made my mind up for me. I'm still undecided, but I'm also never influenced by charisma or a lack of it alone. A party's platform and values are just too important to me to simply let charisma do my deciding for me. In that I frequently seem at odds with many people I know (which I always find kind of scary).