Leadership debates

Well, I can't say that last night's debate was as much of a victory for the Liberals as it was during the French debates, but I still think Dion held his ground pretty well.

Duceppe was the most dangerous one out there as he usually is in the English debates, because of course he has little to lose. It was fun to watch him answer the question about the first thing he would do if he was elected Prime Minister.

Layton was pretty solid, but he brought the debate down on the intellectual levels every now and then by making personal attacks against Harper and his "sweater vest" (in fairness to Mr. Layton, some of them were funny).

Elizabeth May was marvelous! I can't say that I agreed with everything that she said, but I thought she did a good job of casting off the "left wing nut job" label. With a little luck, her party may actually pick up a seat or two! Unfortunately, Mrs. May is doomed to have her ass handed to her by Peter McKay, but I would be among the first to jump for joy if she managed to pull off a miracle and defeat him!

The PM did a much better job of defending himself last night than he did during the French debates, but usually the best he could do was attempt to make the Liberal plan look bad. In fairness, I have always believed that the best defence is a good offence, but in politics a good offence means having a something to propose (at least in my opinion). Prime Minister Harper had no such plan. At the best of times he relied on his record during office, and the rest of the time he was content to just make misleading attacks against Dion's plan.

In my view, at least Dion had something to offer Canadians, whereas Harper had little more than "more of the same".