Harping about this and that

Conservative leader Stephen Harper has been ducking CBC for weeks on doing a ''Your Turn'' town hall-type of thing with The National's Peter Mansbridge. Now it appears his handlers have unleashed him. The 90-minute special will air Thursday at 9 on CBC Newsworld, and at 10 on the main network.

Why the wait? What was the Harper team afraid of?

Indeed,  it has been playing hard to get with other media as well, notably the New York Times which ran a profile of Harper  today. Eleven graphs into the 24-paragraph story, it says

His campaign refused to arrange an interview for this article.

Speaking of the Times, today it ran a report on how the parties have banned re-purposing any clips from the leaders' debate for satirical purposes -- as you read here first 10 days ago.

Rick Mercer, host of "The Rick Mercer Report," a current-affairs parody on CBC, said the arrangement was unacceptable.

"The reality is that when three or four networks are at the table with three or four political parties, someone is going to be the victim," Mr. Mercer said, adding that he did not use any debate clips, but not because of the ban. "It's so pathetic I won't use it," he said. "The whole idea of calling it a debate is contemptible. They may as well have just run the parties' infomercials."

Canadians ought to be stupefied at this arrangement. Why should the networks so readily cede control of their own footage to political strategists? Who are they to dictate what gets discussed or satirized on the public airwaves? This is what happens in banana republics not democracies.

Be a blogger for a day!

This photo from CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce (click to enlarge) came my way and I just couldn't resist. Not that I find RCAF all that funny. Its humour appeals more to my Mom and her friends than to me.

But given how, as I noted last week, the Broadcasting Consortium which controls the Leaders' Debates (and barred the Greens from participating) agreed to party demands not to release clips to satire shows, I thought, what the hell? Let's have some fun. Besides, this place could use some colour.

Trouble is, I'm all debated out. All I can think of is saying ''Orangemen,'' for the real leaders' awful make-up jobs Monday night. So I leave it to you, dear reader, to think up the punchline for this one. Please, fire away!

For inspiration, check out what this young Edmonton blogger has to say in his spoof of the Monday night brawl in Montreal. 

(Moderator Steve) Paikin: That's quite enough of that. Mr. Martin, many campaigns, yours included, have made use of personal attacks this election, with one member of your team going so far as to allege that Stephen Harper killed three nuns. Are such attacks productive?

Paul Martin: I would like to take this opportunity to completely ignore your question, and to focus instead on my favourite platitude, the importance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You see, the Charter is important. That's why if I get to keep being Prime Minister, I, as a staunch advocate of preserving the strong centre of the Canadian federation, will seek a constitutional amendment that will strip the federal government of a power that the provinces will retain. What do you think of that? Huh?

Stephen Harper: Hold on, it doesn't appear to be in my script.

Okay, so what do you expect from a 23 year old who listens to Steve Miller and Simon & Garfunkel? The kid is probably under the influence.

RCAF airs tonight at 8, and repeats Monday at 7.

 

French Connection

Ce soir et cette nuit, seulement! Ici! Un engagement exclusif avec moi!

Oui, mes amis et amies, if you want to join in my little commentaire-ama on tonight's French-language debate, I will be moderating an open thread right here at 8.

Of course, I will totally understand if you opt out because you have better things to do -- notwithstanding my hurt feelings.

Fear factor

Protect your kids. The new batch of Liberal television ads are out - and they're super simple, slick and scary. There's a martial beat, faded in close-ups of Conservative leader Stephen Harper and scripts that exploit the mushy middle's deepest fears about a Tory win.

In a sentence: If the Cons win, we will be marching our kids off to Eye-rack, removing emission controls from our cars and smokestacks, putting our homosexuals in camps, sending immigrants back where they came from, privatizing health care and giving those Mayberry Machiavellis in the White House something to jig about.

Hmm.

They just might work...if the media buy is big enough.

You have to wonder if the Liberals are getting a good deal from their friends at CTV and CanWest Global to run these suckers.

Bring out the dead

Open thread. Bring out your needles. Stick them in the politicos, the format, the post-debate coverage on the nets or online, each other ... or me.

Closing Arguments

Martin plays the fear card: The Conservatives are the every-man-for-himself party and will strip Canadians of their social saftey net. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Boo!

Harper is blurbing over with positivity: Stand up for accountability. Stand up for change. Stand up for Canada. Stand up and get your circulation moving because we're outta here.

Layton is grateful: Thank you for watching. Thank you for having me. Please vote for me. You'll get all the good clean government you want without any of the corruption or corporate ties you don't want. Play this statement backwards and you'll hear "Tommy Douglas is not dead.''

Duceppe: My fellow Quebecers, nobody loves you except moi. Merci and bon soir.

Turn, turn, turn

(Apologies for not being as quick as I'd hoped. Having technical problems, aggravated by this old, old PC.)

Interesting experience this live-blogging because I am more visually focused on the computer, your comments and my keyboard. Hence, I am more LISTENING to the debate. It gives a very different impression, just like in 1960 when radio listeners of the Nixon-Kennedy debate thought the former won wile viewers throught Kennedy was the victor because he was more telegenic.

Martin, who has been an orating stumbler-bumbler throughout the campaign, tonight has sounded strong and passionate. Duceppe has come across as shrill and out of place. Layton is whiny. And Harper? Over-rehearsed and evasive. What's more, every time I sneak a peak at the TV, I catch him with that inappropriate smile, sometimes a smirk.

My guess is that the turning point everybody was talking over the weekend -- with the latest polls showing the Conservatives surging ahead -- has just turned another point.

The next two weeks are going to be fun.

While the cat's away

If you want to see how Harper's followers are following this debate, check out the comments over on Andrew Coyne's blog. He's left them unsupervised for the evening.

Salvos

The NDP War Room, as it has been throughout this campaign, is firing away tonight. Nothing from the Liberals. Meanwhile, the Conservatives, as they did last debate, issued a lengthy ''pre-buttal'' even before the debate began.

Here's a sampling from the NDP team:

(1) Paul Martin said tonight: “we all agree on mandatory minimums” in relation to gun crimes.

Perhaps he should talk with his Justice Minister.

"All the studies regarding mandatory minimums have shown that mandatory minimums are neither effective nor are they a deterrent," Mr. Cotler said. (National Post, March 22, 2005)

(2) More women in parliament: another Martin Broken Promise

“I agree with Mr. Layton.  We need far more women in Parliament.”  (Paul Martin, January 9, Leaders’ Debate)

Haven’t we heard this before?

“Mr. Martin told his party at the 2003 convention that 52 per cent of all MPs should be female. We have to go out across this country and, in riding after riding, recruit young women who want to dedicate themselves to the public service," he said. That recruitment drive has yet to happen.

“Two years after Liberal Leader Paul Martin said he looked forward to the day that the number of women in Parliament reflected their share of the population, just 26 per cent of his party's candidates are female.”  (Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail, Thursday, January 5, 2006)

County Seat

In the round about the economy, which starts on agriculture, Layton gets Martin straight in the heart: He invokes farmers in Essex County, where Martin was born. Has Martin forgotten his roots? Along County Road 50, they're struggling. What would his Mom say?