Post Debate Hangover - North of the 49th Parallel

The Western Standard, the voice of liberty on this side of the border invited me last night to follow the federal election debate and post to their live blog. It was a lot of fun doing a minute by minute breakdown of the debate with people from across the country. Thank you Western Standard!

As for the debate, I think every partisan will come away thinking their candidate was the winner. A couple of key points:

1. Stephane Dion - Just because "laissez-faire" rhyme's with "I don't care" doesn't make it true, or show you understand basic economics
2. Jack Layton - Doesn't understand economics. He claims to be supporting "working families". Well working families wouldn't be working any longer if he got his way and reverse the conservative corporate taxes, or shut down the oil sands. This would throw thousands of people out of work. I guess his idea of working families are those collecting welfare cheques.
3. Elizabeth May was shrill and rudely interrupting the Prime Minister. With her wacky ideas of saying the government should lower the Canadian dollar and stop all foreign takeovers, it showed she had no business being in the debate.
4. Gilles Duceppe, has no business being in a national debate since he's not running to form a government. The Christian Heritage Party has more legitimacy to be in the national debates than the BQ.
5. Stephen Harper - I know he was trying to appear calm and "nice" in an attempt to pander to liberal female voters. But while he did a good job of defending the government record, he didn't sound strong or confident. What was with defending government-rationed health care and higher spending on the arts? He spent way too much time trying to distance himself from being an actual conservative.
6. The new table format - Sorry but politics is a competition of ideals of how we see our country. It's about leadership, not sitting around gossiping like the women hosting The View.
7. Since when was George Bush running for election in Canada? The opposition spent way too much time bringing up this sorry comparison of Harper to Bush. If only Bush was running here, he would demolish the left-wing opposition in this country!

Winner? It makes me sick to say it, but Jack Layton came across as the most strong and passionate advocate of what he believed in. Mostly because he has nothing to cover up. Dion didn't know where he stood, and Harper was trying to avoid sounding like an actual conservative.