Don Newman

September 10, 2021

In the National Hockey League at playoff time, the referees assigned to the games are given one instruction: Don’t become part of the game. Let the players decide the outcome.

That same instructions should have been given to the moderator and journalists taking part in the English-language debate Thursday evening. Instead of at least some form of free-flowing exchange among the party leaders vying to become prime minister after the ballots are cast in an elongated voting process that ends on September 20th,  viewers were subjected to party leaders speaking for 45 seconds, then abruptly cut off, just as they were reaching the point they were trying to make.

In fairness to the moderator and the journalists, they were not the ones that determined the rules. For the second federal election in a row, an independent commission of eminent Canadians organized the debates, set the rules and told moderators — in the case of the English debate, Angus Reid Institute President Shachi Kurl — to enforce them. The Canadians on the debates commission may be eminent, but they know nothing about television. Their first attempt at planning a party leaders’ debate in 2019 went poorly. The revised attempt in this election campaign went no better.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am acquainted with the moderator and the journalists who asked the questions. I like them and hoped they would shine in a series of vigorous exchanges that would help Canadians make up their minds how to vote in what has become a very tight race between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Instead, we sat through a series of truncated exchanges, leaders speaking briefly, often with no point being made, and then replaced by other leaders to again briefly fill the screen.

The Canadians on the debates commission may be eminent, but they know nothing about television. Their first attempt at planning a party leaders’ debate in 2019 went poorly. The revised attempt in this election campaign went no better.

At times, the leaders debated one on one. Sometimes there were three leaders taking part exchanging – if not views – at least their party’s talking points, and sometimes all five were fighting for air time. To say it was uncoordinated, confusing and discombobulated would be an understatement. In fairness to Kurl, although she continually interrupted the flow of the program, she was doing what she had been instructed to do. Somehow, she kept track of how the broadcast was meant to flow and followed the plan. The only problem was it was a completely unsatisfactory plan.

So, who won the debate? Ironically, the biggest winner was Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet. The debate began with moderator Kurl asking Blanchet why he supported “discriminatory” legislation now before the Quebec National Assembly–Bill 96, effectively limiting the rights of English speakers in the province, and Bill 21 passed two years ago prohibiting public sector employees from wearing religious symbols while on the job. Not surprisingly, Blanchet denied the bills were racist and that francophone Quebecers who overwhelmingly support them were racists.

That could have been the end of it. But when the debate ended all the leaders met with their advisers, then came out to speak with reporters. By that time, after consulting his advisers, Blanchet decided that the Kurl question was a direct attack on Quebecers.   Other party leaders had failed to come to his defence, and it was proof that voters in his province had to support the Bloc to protect themselves in Ottawa.

Suddenly the Bloc leader, who is usually a passenger in the English leaders debate because his party runs no candidates outside Quebec, had an issue to help his flagging campaign in his home province. For the Bloc to get what they think is a winning issue in an English debate has to be a first!

The other direct winner was Green Party Leader Annamie Paul. Her party is in chaos. Many of the party executive wanted to dump her as leader as the campaign was beginning. They have denied her any money to run a national campaign and consequently the Greens have been dropping in the polls. But on Thursday night Canadians saw Paul standing on the stage with the other leaders, giving as good as she got, handling herself in the political big leagues. The debate will do nothing to improve Green Party fortunes across the county but it may help Paul in her personal campaign in the Toronto Centre riding. She could be the only Green elected. It would serve the party right.

As for the other party leaders, both Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh emerged from the debate unscathed. That is a win for each of them.  Conversely, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was effectively the loser. The short time segments played to the advantage of O’Toole and Singh. Trudeau could not  mount an effective challenged on O’Toole’s inconsistent policies on gun control, abortion or vaccinations to protect against COVID-19. And Singh was able to chirp along without anyone able to point out the relative absurdity of his ongoing claim that he could be Prime Minister when his party consistently runs at about 20 percent support in the polls.

Of course, the person who wanted to point out all of those things was Trudeau. But he couldn’t effectively do any of that and he was a loser because of that. He was defeated by the format of the debate. He might have been defeated on the arguments and exchanges, if they had been allowed to happen. Certainly, he might have been stymied as he has often been by the repeated question, “Why an election in the middle of a pandemic when you had two years left in your current mandate?”

With about a week to go and a race to close to call, Trudeau might well be wondering that himself. And he might also be wonder why his party agreed to a debate format where the referees would play such a large part.

Contributing Writer and Columnist Don Newman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a lifetime member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, and author of the bestselling Welcome to the Broadcast. He is Executive Vice President of Rubicon Strategies in Ottawa.