Saturday, April 16, 2011

2011 Canadian Election Debates

I finally just got done watching the entirety of the 2011 Canadian Election debates, in both French and English.  Ignatieff looked a bit week in the English debate, but a little better in the French debate.  Harper, by simply surviving, did alright in both, but the two who were really interesting to watch were Layton and Duceppe, especially the latter.  Duceppe is a very well spoken politician who approaches things with a level of frankness that the others don't dare.

It's clear, especially between Duceppe, Harper, and Layton that those three have done this more than a few times, and are like old buddies.  Ignatieff stood out at times like the odd guy out.  The parts where Duceppe and Layton reminisced about the near coalition with Harper in 2004 were especially like watching a couple of the guys sit back and talk about the good ole days when they were all friends over a glass of beer.  Anyway, I encourage everyone to watch them.  A source for that would be ctv.ca, but I'm sure you can find it elsewhere.

Interesting to note also, that normally in Canada, the highest rated programs pull in just over a million viewers.  The English debate pulled in over four million viewers!  That puts it up to the level of the Stanley Cup or the Vancouver Olympics.  Yep, Canadians really do take their politics seriously.

The debate is not only informative, but it's just damned fun watching our politicians actually drop the spin from time, to time, and just talk directly.

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