Muddling our way to election day!

The English leaders’ debate provided no moment of epiphany for the poor befuddled viewer and voter, rather it tended to reinforce our understanding of the leaders positions, such as they are. If we thought we were going to have it all figured out after the two hours were up, we were sadly mistaken.

Stephen Harper managed to avoid any horrendous pitfalls, no chickens had their necks slashed during his time on stage and a close examination of video does not show triple sixes along his hair line. For a boring economist he occasionally got off a good line or two, though he still isn’t going to be proclaimed as a great communicator. He was polished, confident, and polite to a fashion and utterly devoid of passion. During the two hours he never really came out and said what a Conservative country would look like, we got a few inferences but no substantive details. Not that we probably expected them, but it would be refreshing if just once somebody would come out and say we’re going to do “A, B, C, D and maybe even E”. That’s what we’ll do. Instead the agenda seems to be we’ll be different than the Liberals. Which the way things are shaking out in this election may just be enough. Harper seemed unsure as to how to approach the issues of women’s rights and homosexual rights, not offering what Canadians wanted to hear, that of a reassurance that the loonies in his party won't rule the day. That is the one card the Liberals can still hold in this race, the fear of Canadians that the fringes of the new Conservatives may hold the center. To his credit at least Harper didn’t run off at the mouth interrupting every two minutes (hi Jack!), he may not have scored the proverbial knock out punch, but he too was not knocked to the mat himself. All in all he held his own and surely didn’t cost himself any votes.

Paul Martin had the most to lose in the debate, a fatal stumble and it’s the John Turner legacy he would inherit not the Chrétien addendum. So he approached the English debate with caution but managed to get his talking points across in a forceful fashion. His main theme seemed to be health care, which has become the one item entrenched in the bosom of the Liberal party. He questioned the plans of the Conservatives and their vision of how health care will look in ten years. Of course when you play with fire you run the risk of getting burned. Through the course of that debate, it was repeatedly pointed out by Harper, Layton and Duceppe, that the current state of health care has declined under the last twelve years of Liberal rule, as the teens would say, ‘BURN’. And if Health care is going to be the Rubicon for the Liberal party, then they have some explaining to do. It was under the then Finance Minister Martin, that funding was reduced to the provinces, to suddenly claim to be the shining beacon of a renaissance takes a wee bit of jam. Martin frequently attacked the Conservative agenda claiming it would be detrimental to health care, he continually repeated the phrase “we want health care, not aircraft carriers” which while cute isn’t really indicative of Harper’s plans.

This amazing phantom aircraft carrier the Liberals keep trotting out isn’t quite the massive military acquisition they are painting; the “aircraft carrier” is actually a supply ship which would have helicopters land on the top. No screaming F 18’s, rather perhaps seaworthy Sea King helicopters taking soldiers and sailors to the many peacekeeping adventures we seem to get involved in. It’s no secret that our military needs to be re-equipped and fast, we tend to bite off far too much than we can chew, as was pointed out last night, we frequently have to beg or borrow a ride to where we’ve promised to go to. His aircraft carrier comments make a handy bit of dis-information but it’s a point that has gained the Liberals far more mileage than they deserve on that point.

Martin was more successful when the topic of Iraq came up, pointing out that the Conservatives or at least Harper himself would have been more receptive to requests from George Bush and Tony Blair. It’s a point that Harper doesn’t seem to wade into now that Iraq has become a mess, his waffling on the issue by claiming we didn’t have the resources anyways, doesn’t do much to reassure Canadians about his beliefs in this matter. Though anyone who has followed the Iraq debate in Canada would have to realize that Harper was on the opposite side of the debate from Jean Chrétien, we’re left to wonder how a Prime Minister Martin would have handled that situation. The inference is that he’s on side with Chrétien’s decision of the time, which now seems to be a safe spot to be.

The military continued to get more attention in this debate, an unusual situation in Canadian politics, which usually buries matters military far down the importance list. The “Star Wars” file got a little bit of play here and in that the Martin Liberals took some hits, Jack Layton scored some points when he pointed out that at least Canadians knew where he and Stephen Harper stood on the program, Harper in favour of more integration with NORAD, the NDP obviously looking for more distance. He attacked Martin’s “strategy” of playing both sides of the debate. Stating that he had to make his mind up by the end of the month regarding his position, while he didn’t say anything one suspects Stephen Harper was thinking well maybe Martin won’t have to decide anything by the 30th of June. The Star Wars issue doesn’t seem to have the same resonance with Canadians that it does with the NDP, it’s truly their issue.

Should there be a Conservative minority government on June 29th, it may run into its first crisis on the 30th, if Canada truly has to make up its mind on whether NORAD will be the controlling organization on the Star Wars issue. How Harper cobbles together a coalition will be an interesting study, with the three other parties seemingly against the plan, one suspects that we’ll be asking for an extension on our decision.

Gilles Duceppe really just wants Quebec to be allowed to stay in its room, on its own, but please keep the allowance coming along. While I understand that the fact his party has so many seats in Quebec gained him an invitation to the dance, I’m puzzled as to what possible use his participation was to the Canadian voter outside of Quebec. He and the NDP seemed to be on the same wave length for most of the night and tended to interupt the two other candidates the most. We learned that Duceppe believes that Quebec should control its own money, its own health care, its own everything. There is no need for Federal involvement in a Gilles Duceppe world. Even if he proclaimed the wisdom of Moses, the rest of us wouldn’t be able to vote for him anyways. So really what was his point. The Green Party would have had more to offer in the English debate, as they at least provide candidates in those ridings that Mr. Duceppe feels are the badlands. They would also have been able to put the NDP on the defensive on some of their closely cherished platforms. Jack Layton was given the left side of the agenda to hold as his own, even if a segment of the population feels that there is yet another option for that vote.

During the two hours, Jack Layton proved that Mama Layton never gave him the lesson about not talking all the time and letting someone answer a quesiton when you ask it. With that perpetual grin on his face, he seemed to relish the chance to share his opinion, share his opinion and well share more of his opinion. The Chatty Jacky never seemed to stop talking, which became an annoying thing as the “debate” progressed, more of a non stop Layton commentary with side trips to Duceppeville, Harpertown and Martinique. He bristled when chastised by Martin for his non stop talking and expressed even more shock when Martin suggested that the election was about which party would form a government, Conservative or Liberal. Jack proclaiming that he was disappointed by the arrogance of the Prime Minister, newsflash to Jack, while you’re going to no doubt have a much better time of it this election, you won’t be making van line reservations on the 29th to move into 24 Sussex, best get over the disappointment now.

I was surprised by the end of the debate that Jack wasn’t taking bows for moderating the affair, such was his omnipresent force. By the way Anna Marie, the idea of moderating is to uh, moderate, that means occasionally telling the combatants to “shut the hell up”!! Far too often she and her panellists were rendered pointless, their helpful suggestions (when the could get a word in) reflecting their news agenda and not necessarilly that of the viewer/voter.

The format of the debate didn’t give us much of a chance to compare the two main suitors for our vote. By the end we weren’t any better informed on the differences of Martin and Harper, than we were at the start. Layton and Duceppe carried far too much of the debate for two parties that most likely will never form a government. The two may hold the winner hostage on the 29th, but if they’re not careful that will only be a temporary role. That was one thing that was never addressed in this debate and may have been the most important to us. We’re not clear on where the parties line up if they don’t form a majority. If the NDP and Bloc are going to be obstructionist in the next parliament how will that benefit us? If they over play their hand in a minority situation we’ll only be back to this exercise in a very short time. And Canadians will want to hold somebody accountable for that!