THE ENGLISH DEBATE
Just a few thoughts on Friday nights English debate.1. Martin will be spun to be all passion when he was really all nervous.
2. Harper will be spun to be soul-less when he was really calm and sophisticated.
3. Jack Layton did a fine job. I give credit where credit is due. He would do fine in American politics.
4. Why the hell is Gilles Duceppe even required to show up? Really. Seeing him talk about Western alienation was laughable. Really.
5. The concept of having 'average' Canadians ask questions is childish, juvenile and silly. Do we really believe these questions are from the average Canadian or filtered through the prism of what left wing journalists want the debate to be about. Where are the questions from Evangelicals about withering rights for freedom of religion?
6. I really hate it when people conform to stereotypes. As soon as I saw the first woman I yelled out loud 'same sex marriage'. When she said her daughter was at Queen's Law, my old alma mater, I howled with laughter. I suspect she will be a Supreme Court Justice someday.
7. I really hate it when people conform to stereotypes, redux. As soon as I saw the guy with the too tight T-shirt, the beer gut and the rack of guns behind him I put my head in my lap in shame. He obviously had none. In one fell swoop that visual made thousands of people who had finally committed to giving Harper a chance have second thoughts. And it was intentional.
8. Was it just me or did Mistress Moderatrix seem to cut off Harper and sometimes Layton just a little too quickly while always letting Martin finish his sentence. Or maybe Martin just spoke really fast because he was so nervous and had nothing to say.
9.In the next debate, Harper needs to have a well honed answer about his vision for the country. One that includes sweeping vistas, and mentions how children are our future.
10. I would love to see what Paul Martin is doodling all the time when either Layton or Duceppe attack him. Sometimes you can just envision him clicking his heels like Doronthy. "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 10:18 PM
5 Comments:
It's unlikely Martin strayed from his script much. They're very well choreographed. His national unity rant about his children being born in Quebec blah blah blah did provide a classic moment of the night with that look on Duceppe's face. I noticed it before I saw the media pundits point it out after the debate. I like Duceppe though, I'm sure he was there for the anglophones in Quebec.
And it did catch my attention that SSM was the first question! I doubt you'd see an Evangelical asking a question in this climate. And the gun guy from Estevan, SK, well I wouldn't be surprised if that was his shop. Most people down there own guns. It's clear Martin is pandering to the urban vote in Ontario instead of the western vote. Perhaps this goes under the western alienation category.
I was surprised not ONE question about the Forces.
I liked how Harper threw it hockey, but I can see how that conforms to the stereotypical Canadian.
If Layton said Ed Broadbent one more time......
So in the French debate Layton, Martin and Duceppe said they were Quebeckers, then in the English debate Layton and Harper said they had roots in NB. Enough with the phoney baloney! I hated (Layton was the worst for this) the repetitive "this question is very important to me")
One last thought, I thought Harper's closing speech was AMAZING! I can't find a transcript yet, but if you remember it, it was really good.
The questions seemed fairly real to me, partly because they were so unanswerable.
How can you answer in a debate exactly how you plan to fix health care, when in fact, delivery of heath care is not within your jurisdiction?
And the question about the gay daughter -- once the questions because about a person, rather than an issue, they become unanswerable.
Like it or not, government doesn't deal in specifics. It can't. Not when there are millions of specifics. It does the best it can.
I thought most of the questions were good enough, but I hated it when several times I found they just didn't answer what was asked. Non-journalist questions made that more obvious, I think.
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Fabian,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, this debate certainly allowed Martin to stay on script. I would love to see a plain showdown with only him and Harper.
Sharon,
Thank you also. I am not surprised that they did not mention the Armed Forces. Sadly, it is of the few things that many Canadians genuinely do not seem to care about. They do not realize that in order to be peace keepers, one must still have an army that uses force.
Canadianna,
Thank you for the comment. Part of the problem with the format I feel is that at the end of the day, the Journos still pick what get's on air so any authenticity is blunted by this. The first one was obviously a plant to trip up Harper but he aquitted himself well. We'll see how things go once the dirt flies on Jan 1.
e,
I do not know what you said but thanks for saying it anyway. I'll assume it was not nasty and you agreed with everything I have ever written.
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