Thoughts and reactions on the Canadian Leaders Debate

Wow, Harper just admitted to being wrong. Although he is lying about going to Iraq.

If he were PM, we would be in Iraq.

reply to post by GAOTU789


How true? And E. May said the same....with sources.

I like her more and more!

Great line by Duceppe - I know I won't be Prime Minister and three of you know you won't be Prime Minister, even if you won't admit it.

I honestly like that man. I've said it before but it bears repeating - If the Bloq would rethink this whole seperation thing and go national, they'd probably get my vote.

I could listen to the Bloc if they dropped the Separatist BS and every issue didn't hinge on Quebec also Duzey.

That's fine for provincial politics but it doesn't wash when it's the entire country we are dealing with.

Kudos for the comment though. Best line of the debate by far.

It's over, Ms. May is by far my winner. Hopefully it results in some seats for her party. She is a very intelligent woman and a great speaker.I don't think she has a chance running against Peter MacKay though.

Jack Layton is the big winner, in my opinion. He has scored some real points tonight.

Dion did well, he seemed pretty confident and handled his crtitsm from Layton quite well.

Harper looked agitated at times and some of the looks he gave Liz May were down right hateful. He did well defending himself though and didn't go over the edge in his responses. He looked like he wanted to a couple of times.

It's a shame Mr. Duceppe has to be so localized in his scope. He's a decent politician.

[edit on 2-10-2008 by GAOTU789]

The reason I like the Bloq is that they are big on the seperation of federal and provincial responsibilities.

Well, that was a really lively debate. I wonder how many Canadians watched the US one instead of ours?

reply to post by Duzey


I watched the Canadian debate upstairs.

My wife (American) watched the Biden/Palen debate downstairs.

Palen did better then expected according to my wife but the only undecided voter who decided to vote for McCain after the debate was embaresing.

I was very surprised with E. May and J.layton.

They both did well.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Dion. To bad he is missing the charisma of Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien.

The Bloc leader did well in my opinion.

Our PM seemed to be himself.

Wow, now I am sorry I didn't watch. Oh well too late now, but I thank you all for your commentary.

It's all politics at work for me, so that may be a part of the reason I didn't watch. Thanks for the thread though. And no, I didn't watch the American one either.

Bah all it did was remind me how much I hate Mr. Harper

His arrogance is astounding; everyone brought their campaign summary and economic plan, except Harper. In fact, he wouldn`t even let us in on his top secret economic plans for our country! I can't believe he's asking us to "trust him" on this, is he insane!? Or are Canadians that stupid, that they would elect someone to office on his word that he'll do the right thing? I think it's ridiculous and insulting to the intelligence of Canadians.

The Conservatives pushed Bill C-61 on us, the copywrite bill that makes our laws the strictest of any country, needs to be reworked. This is something that's on the to-do list of the NDP along with passing laws that would make it illegal for ISP's to practice traffic shaping in order to limit/stop P2P usage.

Then you have Conservative, Liberal, and Bloq backed Bill C-51 which will make up to 89% of natural supplements illegal! This is something Big Pharma has been after for some time, bringing all vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements under their pharmaceutical umbrella of greed. Things like Vitamin C, creatine and magnesium, all of it, would need a doctor's Rx. Totally absurd. The NDP is the only party that is fighting this bill which is still on the table for review early next year.

Harpar's government is scheming to make Canada into America Jr, nudging it rightward ever so slightly whenever an opportunity presents itself. If you'll notice by reading into the platform of each candidate, the Conservatives don't actually offer anything new besides maybe their flawed carbon tax system; Harper wants us to have not even more of the same but less than we're used to. Legalizing private medical clinics is high on his list and something he's already failed to push in the past. Also reversing the decriminalization of marijuana; something that everyone finally decided they were ok with.

The NDP has introduced a promising looking Pharmacare plan for all Canadians too; not complete drug coverage but a fair chunk across the board.

Stop Bill C-51
Stop Bill C-61 (Copyright for Canadians)

[edit on 3-10-2008 by ANoNyMiKE]

I was glad to finally see Jack Layton drop the gloves. The last 2 elections he was like a little kid. Constantly saying we need to get along. I think it was him and Harper that made the debate.

Harper, because he also took off the gloves. He saw that there was no way that this was going to be like all the rest of the debates where they all just lob softballs at each other. Layton would swing and he would swing back.

Ducceppe just seemed out of place. Some of his points were just dumb. Like his insistence that Quebec did not have the promised seat at UNESCO. I was getting frustrated just listening to him not listen. Like Harper said, if Quebec has a designated seat in the Canadian contingent and no other province does, then they have someone there representing their interests. It is not Harper's fault if this organization won't recognize Quebec, and they did what they could.

May did pretty good. I think she could have used a bit more brushing up, but for the most part impressed me. I think that her being a relatively unknown entity though, my expectations were low. I know I should have expected more, and that is my bad.

Dion looked like a scared kitten. He looked like he didn't deserve to be there. It makes me wonder if now it is there turn to spend the "40 years in the wilderness" that the NDP had to go through for the last 20 years. I just don't think he is cut out for leadership.

At the end of the day, I will probably vote PC. Being out West they are the only party that seems to care about us. Everyone else just seems to think of us as some kind of colony where we live just to serve the East.

reply to post by Rook1545


I think the only players that'll count will be Conservative and NDP; it looks like the rest are going to be absorbed by the NDP in order to fight the greater evil that is Harper.

Vancouver Sun Article

Victoria-area Liberal candidate Briony Penn hears on the doorstep what she also believes: that it's time for her Liberals, the New Democrats and the Greens to forge an alliance to defeat the Conservatives.

"If we don't unite the progressive voices, we will continue to be ruled by minority Conservative governments that get less than 40 per cent of the votes," said Penn, the Liberal candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Penn's comments came in response to NDP leader Jack Layton's recent musings about being willing to forge a post-election alliance with the Liberals to govern Canada. It's an idea that Penn - a former Green party member who has voted for the NDP and was approached to run by all three centre-left parties - wholeheartedly supports.

The bloc and Duceppe anger me pretty much no matter what they're complaining about. IMO that party is a bunch of unpatriotic whiners that seizes what ever platform it can to use to push it's separatist agenda. They already got defeated in the referendum years ago yet they still won't give it a rest; the people spoke and they asked the bloc to shove it.

I am a green party supporter, but realize that we Canadians need to come together somehow, agree on a party, and take down the Conservatives. Right now it seems like if nothing is done, evil Harper will be back in power with less than half the votes. And that is absurd. Something needs to happen...
Out of the Liberals and NDP, well I prefer Jack Layton, but don't agree with his environment policies. Its a tough call, but I think a post-election alliance would be the best thing.

We the people need to be notified of how to take down Harper!

What are your thoughts?

I'd like to remind everyone that my beloved Progressive Conservative Party doesn't exist anymore and we are talking about the Conservative Party of Canada - two completely different entities with different ideals. It's a small detail, but it's an important distinction to me.

I'm a conservative, not a Republican.

I can't bring myself to get too worked up over the Bloq. The Reform Party was regional, then they became the Alliance Party (still regional) to spruce up their image, and then they merged/took over a national party and stuck us with Harper. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of Canadians who aren't thanking the West for that. At least the Bloq keeps their particular kind of politics at home and is consistent in their message. We all know where we stand with them and I can't say the same for the rest of the parties.

I watched both the French and English debates (although my french is seriously pitiful). I found Dion exceptional- possibly because I'd completely and summarily dismissed him, previously. I thought it was brilliant when he snarled "President Harper" and he came across as sincere and respectful. While he does have a way to go before achieving RockStar status, he does have a subtle charisma and I wish more Canadians would recognize it. Jack Layton as always, kicks @ss, and I was really pleased that Elizabeth nailed 'Bushlite' on the Atlantic Accord. She was exceptional. Harper throughout both nights, had this tight vapid grin happening,like he was the recipient of the latest alien anal probe!

Was very glad I decided to watch.

Harper didn't really impress me.
Dion went a few notches up in my books.
Thought Layton was a little annoying. I WISH he would have mentioned the Exxon question, and actually allowed Harper to answer. I was hoping to see Harper squirm a little.
Was VERY impressed with May. I've already thought of voting Green as I don't really want to give the Conservatives OR Liberals my vote. So she totally did the job there!

From the sounds of it, I was happy to have missed the Palin/Biden thing and went for the leadership debate instead!

They're all going to have to swallow their pride and come together to squash Harper; the last thing we need is a majority conservative government. What I don't understand is how the Conservatives are still leading with like 33% even after the debate, it's like people don't care that Harper didn't even bring an economic plan to the table which to me really shows a lack of respect and true arrogance.

The opinion polls seem to say Harper did poorly yet his numbers haven't dropped ...

A coalition government has a certain appeal. The other parties have some common ground, so it's not completely out of the question. I'm not sure if it's the best thing though.

It would certainly be another windfall for the Bloq. They normally have around 50 seats and that puts Quebec in the driver's seat. It becomes a question of how much are you willing to pay Quebec to keep Harper out of power and how long until we forget why we wanted the coalition in the first place and the government falls on a no confidence vote and we do the same thing all over again.


I found Gilles Duceppe with my favourite line of the night on youtube. For those that didn't watch it - when he turns his head, he's looking straight at Layton and Dion.

reply to post by Duzey


True, Quebec is somewhat bothersome but I'd rather deal with the French than with a conservative majority (dictatorship). It's not often that the Bills and policies have much of a direct effect on you at a personal level but some of them this time do (for me).

C-61 is laughable and scary at the same time, criminalizing everything from singing lyrics to copyrighted music in public to copying your paid for media, like music, to more than one device at once. Some are just stupid, it's just meant to instill in you that they'll get you for anything and they mean business.
Health supplement banning too is huge for me, luckily that was delayed till 2009 so there's time to have it rejected.

I would blow an obscene amount of money on medical costs too if our health care is reduced to the capitalist model of America like the Conservatives would love to do. I have full health/pharma as is but who knows, if it went up significantly my employer may or may not keep with pharmacare.

I think what's going on here is that right now Canadians on the whole are doing quite well for themselves. Times are relatively good, our economy is solid, housing prices have steadily rose for about 4 years now (west coast has at least), cities are growing steadily.
Times like these are when people start looking for less govt involvement, less taxes, less services, strip it all down.

When things start getting weak in places, everyone will throw up their arms and ask what happened to all the government services and assistance they voted out
At a time of economic uncertainty and extreme market volatility; the last government we want is one that makes policy of social darwinism rather than social programs and services that raise the status quo for all.

Americans are voicing concerns about not being able to buy their medication each month and having to chose between going to the hospital and eating. I like to think Canada wouldn't allow that kind of situation to occur, that we take care of all our citizen's health on at least a basic level.

Like Harper said, our economy is very separate and currently unaffected, today. But a year or more from now it could catch up to us and people have to remember you aren't voting for today, you're voting for 2, 3, 4+ years and by then I really think we'll be wishing we had more of a lefty in office and weren't so short sighted in trying to save a few tax bucks.