Gilles Duceppe : 80%
Stéphane Dion : 70%
Stephen Harper : 70%
Jack Layton : 50%
Elizabeth May : 1%

Here is a word about that type of debate. First there is no way to have an intelligent and enlightening debate. Especially when 3 of the party leaders are English speaking.  A debate with 2 or 3 persons that’s good. But when it reaches 4 party leaders it starts to look like a family thanksgiving dinner, absent the turkey. With 5 participants it’s like an attempt to dance the Tango with a group. There is no sensuality.

The Canadian public could learn a lot more if you put each party leader before 3 journalists for an hour. But of course no politician would accept that. They know they would probably lose a lot of credit by taking the risk to look like Sarah Palin in her last interview. That does not happen in a debate with 5 participants. Because in such a debate, the game is not about winning, it’s about not losing.

Elizabeth May Was a Disturbance

Let’s start with Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green party. It was a shame, an authentic shame. She does not speak French at all. She just memorized some French lines.

Her French is like my Spanish and I would not have my place in a Mexican debate. She has not her place in a French debate. Furthermore, Dion beat her on the Environment issue, which is by the way the reason why her party exists.

The worst thing is that she was slowing down the conversation with her interventions in a language that sounded like French and that no one understood.

May is an activist not a politician. Dion knew how to articulate his ideas in a realistic political frame. Elizabeth May is Captain Watson (Greenpeace) dress as a woman. By the way she was poorly dressed.

Surprise!

Stephane Dion is boring but he knows what he is talking about. His Ministerial experience helped him last night. Whether he spoke about the Afghan war or the  Environment he was making sense. I think he scored some points last night. But today he has to start campaigning again and that is when he screws things up!

Duceppe is overcoming a big challenge in this political era. We are in an era in which leaders are promising goodies such as tax deductions on a new pool filter and GST reduction. The Bloc Quebecois has nothing to offer except his indignation and his promises to follow on the heels of the government. And it works. Last night we almost forgot that his impact over states affairs is minimal. He successfully dodged Harper’s attack on the “Quebec Nation” resolution.

Harper’s was not showing any emotion under attack. He did not feel an urgency to respond when he was attacked. Impossible to make him lose his cool. Duceppe tried many times but it was unsuccessful.

I do not feel anything about Layton. He loses is flavor in French.

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