My thoughts on last nights debate:

The three amigos tried to come out swinging on contempt charges and G8/G20 reports, eventhough this had nothing to do with the taped quations, but after about 20 minutes, they seemed kind of puzzled that that hadn’t gotten them anywhere, credit to Harper, and seemed kind of lost on what to do next. Fortunately, some questions came along and steered the debate away from so called “scandals” and into some serious topics.

Iggy was angry. I am not sure why his handlers made him behave like that, or why that strategy was picked. For a party trying to portray Harper as the scary guy, they sure made their own leader look scary, with fist pounding on desks and calling the other leaders names like “liar” and “coward”. Iggy offered little on his platform. Occasionally, he seemed to lose his train of thought somewhere along his convoluted statements, ending his rebuttal early with time to spare. Maybe it was him tweeting all though the debate that got his mind wandering… #justsaying

Jack Layton had some good zingers, but unfortunately for him, zingers don’t get you elected–they just give you some comic relief. Otherwise, Jackie had his usual pie-in-the-sky NDP ideas, but no way of paying for them.

Gilles Duceppe was babbling on incoherently for most of the evening, and if you could understand what he was trying to say, he mentioned at some point signing deals with bananas and registering ducks (with the so-called Quebec National Ducks Registration Agency, more commonly known as Quedux). I think he may have had a few too many before the debate.

And Harper? Harper was cool as a cucumber. Opposition questions were just bouncing off him, turning his gaze to the Canadian people and calmly outlining his party’s platform. Not exciting, but effective, surely. I particularly liked his simple explanation of the jet purchase and why it doesn’t free up healthcare dollars if canceled.

So, Harper the winner, hands down. Jack second, Iggy third, Gilles fourth.

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