The English Debate

If I had to choose a winner, I would probably like Brandon choose Layton, although I would give Martin a close second, not because of an outstanding performance, but because of his knockout punch he delivered against Gilles Duceppe when discussing National Unity. Below is my take on each of the leaders.

Martin: A good opening speech, I especially think his decision to emphasize the strong economy and balanced budgets as opposed to health care or childcare was wise as those are the areas he is strongest in. Besides governments rarely lose elections when the economy is doing well. Although he had many good points, I found him a little over aggressive and even though I know he feels very passionate about many issues, he might want to be a little bit calmer. His one liner against Gilles Duceppe on the national unity file was definitely the high point of the debate. If there is anything in the debate that will help Martin, this one liner may just be it. Most people in Ontario and even the West rightly or wrongly think the Liberals are best to deal with national unity so if he can make the election about national unity, it will certainly help him, especially in Ontario where the gap between the Liberals and Tories is narrowing.

Harper: Not a bad job as he was calm most of the debate and focused more on what he would do rather than attacking the Liberals. He has often been accused of being too angry and focusing too much on the sponsorship scandal, so I think he was wise to leave the attacking to Duceppe and Layton. It also made it harder for Martin to attack him since if Martin went after Harper aggressively while Harper stayed calm, this would have hurt Martin since he would look too negative and aggressive. On the other hand if Harper was too negative and aggressive, this would open him up to attacks by Martin and whenever the two get into an argument, Martin always comes out on top. On the whole, I think he accomplished what he needed to.

Duceppe: He did a reasonably good job of attacking Martin on the sponsorship scandal and making it clear this election was about adscam, not a referendum on Quebec separation. When Martin delivered his knockout punch against Duceppe, he was wise not to fire back as he couldn't win on this point. I agreed with his statement that gay marriage was already decided by a free vote and we shouldn't re-visit it, yet I find it ironic he doesn't apply this to a referendum in Quebec, where he wants another one despite Quebecers saying no twice in a free vote.

Layton: He was assertive, but not as aggressive as last time so I think he accomplished what he wanted. The NDP numbers having been falling in the polls as they are seen as irrelevant, so what Layton needed to do was make himself relevant again, which he did. I also think his decision to focus on Martin rather than Harper was smart. Attacking Harper would only help Martin as it would encourage many NDP voters to strategically vote Liberal to stop Harper. On the other hand by attacking Martin, he clearly give a compelling reason for progressive voters to go NDP not Liberal. I thought his accusation on Martin's hypocricy of attacking the US on not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol when our emissions have increased by almost double was definitely his high point. A word of advice to Martin: attacking the Americans is a good strategy, but don't attack them when we've done worse, only when we've done better. At least the Europeans have the right to lecture the US on not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, whereas we don't.

On the whole I don't think the debate will change much as it seems to have simply re-enforced people's decisions already, although if anyone is to gain, I would bet Layton, but we will have to see in the next little while based on the polls.