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Harold Jansen - Week Three Grades

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Bloc Quebecois

Once again, Duceppe shone in the leaders’ debates. He is calm, clear, articulate, and measured. Somehow, he conveys a message that he wants an independent Quebec, but still respects and admires Canada. And he pulls it off! It’s an argument for sovereignty not based on hatred of Canada. In many ways, he comes across the best in the debate format. I know many people who would consider voting for the BQ – and they live in Alberta! The BQ has the simplest job in this campaign: just don’t mess up and keep people’s eyes focused squarely on the sponsorship scandal. They’ve done that effectively so far and will continue to do so.

Conservative Party

The Conservatives continue to have a strong campaign: centrist, pragmatic policies, and no gaffes to speak of. I thought Harper did well in the English leader’s debate. He has poise and confidence, even if he still comes across as kind of stiff. Predictably, the major challenge for him in the debate was the same-sex marriage issue. As the other leaders (Duceppe in particular) pointed out, the Conservative plan for a new vote on same-sex marriage doesn’t make a lot of sense. Harper’s firm refusal to use the notwithstanding clause to protect the traditional definition of marriage, though, will help to defuse any talk of a “hidden agenda” on rights. This will come at some cost to people strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, but who else are they going to vote for? The trick for the Conservatives will be to try to carry the momentum over after the Christmas hiatus.

Liberal Party

The Liberals continue to be devoid of policy announcements or ideas. This week, the campaign was dominated by Martin’s little spat with the Americans. Given the mood in the country towards the USA and the Bush administration, I don’t think Martin minded being able to stand up to the United States. It certainly didn’t hurt him and it played into one of the campaign themes. I thought Martin did fine in the debate. He showed some real passion standing up to Duceppe, and that highlights a character strength for Martin (and a corresponding weakness for Harper). When we come back from the Christmas break, the Liberals are going to have to show some ideas and policies. With the Conservative campaign and policy, demonizing Harper isn’t going to cut it this time. The Liberals have been lucky that almost no one has been paying attention. That will change in January.

New Democratic Party

Some polling declared Layton the winner of the English debate. I didn’t see it that way. I thought Layton often came across as too scripted and his segments felt like an infomercial at times: “If you act now, we’ll throw in Ed Broadbent’s plan to reinvigorate democracy at no cost to you.”  I’m still waiting for some big policy ideas from the NDP and they’re not there yet. In this campaign, it’s been the Conservatives who have the ideas. The NDP continues to spend its time talking about election strategy and strategic voting, not ideas and issues, which is what voters tend to like about the NDP. I hope for their sake, they’re holding this back for January.

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