No clear winners after 2015 federal election Leaders Debate
By
Rick Bell, Calgary Sun
First posted: Thursday, September 17, 2015 08:44 PM MDT | Updated: Thursday, September 17, 2015 09:52 PM MDT
Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper speaks (right) during the debate with NDP leader Thomas Mulcair (middle) and Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau at the first leaders' debate at the BMO Centre in downtown Calgary, Alta. on Thursday September 17, 2015. Stuart Dryden/Calgary Sun/Postmedia Network
It was no game changer. There was no magic moment when the earth moved.
Nobody screwed it up. Nobody won it going away.
Many thought this would be Harper’s game to play.
After all, Thursday’s verbal tug-of-war was about jobs and the economy, the bread and butter battle suiting the prime minister’s taste, all served up on the man’s home ground.
Harper decided to play it calm, cool and collected, most often talking in the measured tone of the guy selling you mutual funds at RRSP time.
Trudeau was pushy and passionate.
Mulcair tried to portray an image of someone not scary and therefore able to run the country.
Harper is fighting to keep power.
The two others are fighting each other to be the one to take it from him.
But there was nothing approaching the Notley knockout in the Alberta leaders’ debate where an election campaign suddenly and forever shifted gears and everyone remembers exactly when.
We just didn’t see it.
The polls are in a logjam with all three main parties tied. This event will likely not move the dial much.
There are still those on the fence to woo, the undecided.
And if the three parties in a dead heat for support continues it means there is no clear vehicle for those who want Harper out.
For many NDP voters, the Liberals are the second choice and for many Liberal voters the NDP are the second choice.
But there is no place to mark a second-choice X. This is not a preferential ballot.
One party has to emerge and get more seats than Harper.
Somebody has to take the ball and run with it.
The debate itself is not going to go in the history books as a gem.
If you were watching something else, you won’t be kicking yourself.
The first 15 minutes was like watching paint dry, the activists and tall foreheads kept awake by the constant ringing of an annoying bell.
The mind wandered stateside to the Republican debate Wednesday.
Memorable. Engaging. A long highlight reel and that was in a gabfest among people belonging to the same party.
Oh, there was lots of talking over each other.
At one point, the moderator looked like the junior high substitute teacher who had lost control of the classroom.
And yes, often Trudeau was Labrador retriever enthusiastic.
Often he was loud, pushing in to get more than his share of the oxygen.
Mulcair really was trying to not look like some guy serving up pie in the sky.
Harper did not pull all the stops. Far from it.
This obviously was his strategy, the solid captain with his hand on the wheel in rocky waters.
Will it be enough?
The night ends. Thank God. Those who watched won’t ever get that hour and a half back.
Harper takes no questions from reporters but the PM is actually having an event in Calgary bright and early Friday morning.
Harper is no dummy. Going forward, he knows what’s still at stake.
