Commentapalooza 1.0

Bienvenu à tous et à toutes!

As I blogged yesterday, your thoughts and comments on tonight's French-language leaders' debate and its aftermath analysis are welcome. I will get to them as fast as I can point and click -- and as readily as Sympatico and Typepad will let me -- so as to maintain what I hope will be a lively forum.

Please be as outraged and as outrageous as you like, without getting grossly profane or libellous. Mercy and merci.

Some viewing tips...

If you're a unilingual anglophone or prefer the lifeless drone of simultaneous translation, you should be turned to CBC Newsworld, CPAC or CTV Newsnet.

Francophones and and forked-tongued Canadians who want to hear Prime Minister Paul Martin dither in French while Bloc head Gilles Duceppe whips the pants off everybody will want to be en direct with Radio-Canada, TVA (available on basic cable in most areas) or RDI.

Note that I have set the time on this post to 8 p.m. so that it stays at the top of the blog throughout the debate, unless I add another post. I will only do that if something big happens. After the debate, I plan to monitor the punditocracy and hope that you will too!

Let the games begin anytime!

Comments

[Antonia Z.]

Well, blue seems to be the colour of the night. All the leaders are wearing it, or maybe it's just the lighting?

[voxpopgirl]

Setting aside for a moment, any comments about each of the party leaders' opening statements, from a purely aesthetic perspective....

the set sucks -- at least from the wide shot:

it looks as if each party leader is standing in front of his own personal giant cemetary headstone.

[Antonia Z.]

Opening statements:

Duceppe played his trump card right off the top: Adscam. Baf! Pow!
Martin bobs and weaves, and says he believes in a Canada that will succeed.''
Harper kicks off with his change theme.
Layton is the great healer, talking about how wonderful the NDP is. Ooops he just mentioned Liberal scandals.
You can see how this is going to go.
Layton will stand aside while Harper and Duceppe pile on Martin.

[D. Shapiro]

All four leaders are doing the usual: sticking to their sound bites. But none of the three opposition leaders answered the first question directly. Why have an election before the spring? Because they thought the timing was better for the general populace? Not really. The NDP and Conservatives wanted an election because they did not want the Liberal agenda to go through unchanged. And the Bloc simply thought they could get more seats now, before the scandal settles down, and people go back to wondering why they should vote for a party that shirks and avoids power, and therefore will get nothing done.
And The Hon. M. Martin? "Promises kept"? (Yes, this is the second question; his response to the first was irrelevant.) Does any Canadian really believe that the present government has been better at keeping promises than the governments before? They promised to fix the free trade accord, but we have ongoing trouble with the softwood lumber matter as well as others. They said they would protect social programs; instead they became fixed on doing away with the deficit. Of course, the Mulroney regime before them promised to fix the deficit, and they increased to about ten times the size it had been when they came into office.
Why bother with the actual promises? What we know is that a Paul Martin-led government will be fiscally responsible but will leave the social programs on the back burner (note what he said: "look at the balance sheet"!), a Stephen Harper led government will hand back some of the power that the federal Liberals have wrested from the provinces through the power of the transfer payments, and the NDP, should it gain the balance of power, will try to increase the power of the federal government to intervene in and promote social programs. What you want is what you vote for. I don't include M. Duceppe, because he is not interested in the well-being of the country, only in what he believes is good for Quebec; this is small-time thinking.
The question of Quebec and its interests is always front and centre in these French-language debates, since the vast majority of Canada's French speakers live in Quebec. It would be a bold move by one of the three national party leaders to pointedly turn away from that, and say that the interests of Quebec are essentially the same as those of the rest of the country. Instead, they will all focus on the particular ethnic issues that interest separatist Quebeckers: protection of the French language and "culture" (that is, western culture – separate national or regional cultures no longer exist, but the notion that we all live on one planet together has not yet occurred to this provincial thinkers). The only way to protect the French fact of Quebec over the long term is for Quebec to remain within Canada. If Quebec were not part of Canada, Canada would be an essentially unilingual English nation. Quebec would find itself an isolated French island in a monolithically unilingual North America (Canada and the U.S., anyway), with the economic facts of life requiring that English be taught, spoken, and written. That'll be all she wrote for the French fact of Quebec life; the language will come to resemble Cajun more than anything else. I would regret that, since I believe we are all enriched my the duality of Canada's language life.
Although my French is no better than Stephen Harper's, I can follow a leaders' debate in French, because not only do the leaders speak more slowly than in normal conversation, they also all talk down to the electorate. Sound bites and simplified versions of complex issues are what they have for the masses. And they're probably right. since most of the people I encounter believe some arrant nonsense, especially about crime, immigration, and health care. The first is a hot-button issue for the right, the third for the left, and immigration is an area about which we have precious little in the way of facts being widely disseminated.

[voxpopgirl]

i can't help it....

i'm watching CBC Newsworld and listening to the English translators represent each party leader...

whilst listening to the actual content of each of party leaders' comments, my mind can't help but also notice hearing the actual "voices" of each of leaders' English translators and their characteristics...

i'm not certain if each leader has been assigned a dedicated translator...

Harper's translation is spoken by a guy who has a flat delivery with a high nasal tone plus a slight sibilant lisp. Same with Martin's guy. Layton's translator has a pinched, sing-songy tone, rather feminized sounding. Duceppe's translator has the most natural delivery... deep and warm in tone, personable...

wonder if each party had a say or choice about who, or what kind of voice and delivery should be representing each leader as it's broadcast across Canada on radio, the internet and television. or whether they even care.

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Well, we have the good, brainy analytical and historical stuff from D. Shapiro.
Myself, I think Madamme Moderator it hot!

[Canadian News Reader]

Harper seems to be the most comfortable with the questions. Layton is giving a good fiesty performance. Why is Martin holding a pen? Looks silly. Duceppe does not appeal to me, but I am not from Quebec.

[Mezba]

Harper seems to be uncomfortable with the topic of healthcare, but otherwise seems to give an OK performance, but nothing knockout, so no win for him. Layton is the one with the proper answers. He gave a brilliant talk on healthcare. Martin is bobbing and weaving, very bad from him. Why does he have a pen with him?

[Antonia Z.]

Apologies for slow posting. Typepad is grinding away.

[Antonia Z.]

From the NDP War Room:

Paul Martin claims to have kept his promise on creating a national Child Care program.

Here’s the promise:

“In each year following a year of 3% economic growth, a Liberal government will create 50,000 new child care spaces to a total of 150,000.” - The Red Book, Creating Opportunity, 1993, p. 40

Economic growth of more than 3% occurred 6 out of 7 years between 1993 and 2000, no national child care program.

Why did it take 12 years to get going on this priority? Jack Layton pointed out that the government only got going on childcare once it lost its majority, and found itself forced to work with the NDP.

[Mara]

I'm trying my best to follow the debate in French and am having a hard time with Duceppe but Harper's easy to understand. My French is particularly bad, but I fear Harper's might be even worse. This must be killing Quebecors (and his chances in Quebec). I think the biggest problem is the accent (or lack of one).

I have to add, when he (Harper) smiles, it freaks me out ... he should stop smirking, it scares me!!!

[Antonia Z.]

Those NDippers are the fastest off the mark. Here's another missive from the war room:

Martin claimed that the federal government put a proposal before the NDP to address the growing commercialization of the health care system.

That’s not so. As the exchange of letters published on the NDP and Liberal websites shows, the discussion between the parties was about the Chaoulli Supreme Court decision; NDP proposals to toughen up federal rules to block any attempt to set up a private, for-profit health insurance system (as may be proposed by the both the Charest and Klein governments after this election); and Mr. Martin’s flat refusal to do this.

The health care negotiation timeline with links to the correspondence can be found here:
http://www.ndp.ca/page/2159

[Antonia Z.]

Is it the weather or something else? Why so many blips in the signal? I caught at least three drop-puts in sound and one total loss of the signal.

[Mezba]

Martin's answers are so vague and makes no sense. Currently he is talking about some subsidy when asked about gas prices. He is all over the map. Now he is talking about windpower, India and China. All answering the question about high gas prices. Like him or not, Stephen Harper is consistent and easy to follow in this question.

[Antonia Z.]

This is not a debate but a town hall. It's four guys giving speeches, interrupted by pretty videos of Canadians earnestly asking questions. There's no engaging with one another, no parrying and thrusting. The leaders seem to be getting away with the same shpiels they present at their canned campaign pitstops -- and the moderator (TVA's Dominique Poirier) is not pushing them.

[Vesna]

In regards to Antonia's comment about this being a town hall not debate... agreed. I don't like that they're not getting pushed either by each other or by the moderator to actually answer questions. They're taking questions asked by Canadians but then twisting their answers to their pre-determined questions instead of answering the questions asked!!!!!! The moderator needs to do a better job with the follow-ups.

I'm getting angry that the set is beginning to bother me.

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Antonia,
Yes, yes, and yes again. I've heard all this in English on the hustings.
There is this eerie feeling that we are
somehow in l8th century France and anybody who gets out of line will get the Bastille.
Get off the town hall format or send a
Voltairean message that is not in the script and you will be put to the torture.
Tough time to be a Huguenot.
Ivan

[Mezba]

Martin just said that Quebecors and Canadians together "we are going to tackle the Indian, the Chinese". I wonder if he will repeat it tomorrow in English, as Toronto will be watching.

[Antonia Z.]

I swear the set is the same bunch of slabs of painted-to-look-like-granite plywood and papier maché they drag out every time.

[Lisa Fern]

Did Harper, Layton and Duceppe get some kind of three-for-one deal on those ties?

[Mezba]

Harper just said French is an essential part and the Conservative support both the languages. Martin is now giving a strong reply, but although he said BQ did not support Official Languages, he did not give the instance when it was so. He also did not point out Harper's now famous speech from 8 years ago. This format really is boring. I liked last debates' tate-e-tet.

[Antonia Z.]

Where are all the other party war rooms?? Here's the latest hit on Martin from the Layton camp:

In response to a question from a concerned citizen on the Acadian Peninsula about young workers leaving the region, Paul Martin pointed to the booming aerospace and auto sector.

There are no aerospace or auto plants in the Acadian Peninsula.

Antonia says: Thanks for all the fish.

[Antonia Z.]

MERDE!!!

Reader Claude B., whose comment I accidentally deleted, corrects my stupid error up at 9:20.
Dominique Poirier is from Radio-Canada, not TVA.
http://radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/tj22h/index.shtml
Is my face rouge!

[voxpopgirl]

Lisa Fern writes:
"Did Harper, Layton and Duceppe get some kind of three-for-one deal on those ties?"

LOL!!!!

[Antonia Z.]

Geez, that NDP Rapid Response team sure makes life easy for journos covering this debate. Here's yet another shot, this time on Duceppe:

Gilles Duceppe claims he supports the development of French language communities outside of Quebec.

But he and every Bloc MP voted against Bill S-3 An Act to amend the Official Languages Act enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development. at 2nd reading. (House of Commons Journals, 13 April 2005)

All NDP MPs voted in favour.