Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Who Is The Master Debater?

So who watched the English-language debate tonight? I listened to a bunch of it and saw snippets of the last 15 minutes of it and watched and heard the recap on the news afterwards.

I did think it was an interesting debate, insomuch as there were actually questions raised and issues to discuss. Of course, the amount of real answers given was somewhat minimal. That's the only problem I have with these so-called 'debates'. They turn into either shouting matches (although Anna-Maria Tremonti, the moderator, did a good job keeping things in the realm of sanity in that regard) or else they just end up with everyone spouting their platforms and completely avoiding the questions asked as opposed to being a real debate. Woah, that was one big run-on sentence.

As for the content of the show, it was interesting watching Martin & Harper sparring. While Layton was fine and did a good job of outlining the NDP platform for those not in the know, he did seem to just stick to the 'PLEASE! ANYONE! VOTE NDP!' script as opposed to actually giving real answers or rebuttals to questions.

I have to say that the person who impressed me the most was Gilles Duceppe, and that scares me. He was asking some really tough questions and was probably the one person of the four leaders who was actually debating as opposed to sticking to a set platform and pat answers. I was actually cheering the guy on as he went after both Harper & Martin repeatedly on a lot of varying issues and then sat back to let them argue amongst each other. Too bad he looks like a ferret and is the leader of the Bloc.

I have to say that I'm really enjoying this election campaign, as it's not just a sweep for the Liberals yet again and is quite interesting for a political/news junkie like myself! Too bad nobody's called anyone else a kitten-eating alien though...

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