The skinny on Tuesday nights Leaders Debate.
Out of the box Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty was sporting new specs – of the rose-coloured variety as well as the Clark Kent kind. His mission was too accentuate the positive, to position himself as the guy with the bold ideas. And he did that, but at times offered too glowing a picture of Ontario’s economy. Reality Check: Ontario’s creating jobs, but not at the rate McGuinty claims, which he says is more than the rest of the provinces combined. Not quite.
NDP head Andrea Horwath came across as businesslike – a good thing – and wasn’t shy about jumping in to scrap with the boys, thankfully, signaling early on that this was not going to be staid affair. But she could have done more to make a point she’s the only woman in the race, something the Dippers are doing to great effect in their TV ads. Despite that, exit polls showed most viewers had a better impression of her after the debate than they did of her going in.
The PCs’ Tim Hudak was under pressure to right a sagging campaign and came armed with a shit load of one-liners. The fridge magnet anecdote, as in, my daughter Miller can put any three letters together and you’d get the acronym of one of the 630 of the province’s agencies board and commissions presumably wasting taxpayers’ money, was a charmer. Hudak’s one offs proved effective (mostly), but at times made him sound too scripted. The PC leader engaged in a little too much rhetoric and code language, too, no doubt to appeal to the baser elements of his base. “You can’t run a government that tries to be all things to all people,” he said. Read: time to cut some layabouts off.
In a nutty shell The Preem started slowly, blinding us with numbers on Grit accomplishments, and those Kung Fu hands, but warmed to the task of defending his government’s record and gave as good as he got, and then some, as the night wore on. Had the most to lose, but acquitted himself well enough to avoid a knock out blow, despite being knocked off stride on a couple of occasions.
Horwath scored most of her points at McGuinty’s expense. A smart move tactically, but still hard to watch, especially when Hudak repeated his “foreigners” slip that caused him embarrassment early in the campaign, only this time on the topic of Lib efforts to attract foreign students.
She joined Hudak in the fear-mongering about the Libs cutting “private power deals” with unnamed corporations that “ship jobs” overseas. Presumably the NDP leader was referring to the Samsung deal to build wind turbines, which will mean for plants in Ontario by the way. She didn’t say specifically, but the NDP campaign has carried the whiff of protectionism the Tories have been trading in to win rural votes. Yes, the recession has been tough on forestry workers in the North, but what would Jack say?
Horwath, though, didn’t let Timmy completely off the hook, noting in his shocking stream of consciousness on the Liberals’ “tax grab” on smart metres that it was the Tories who caused the problems plaguing the electricity system when they decided to deregulate back in the Harris days. Yes, Hudak was at the cabinet table when those decisions were being implemented. Buyaka.
Hudak’s presentation was polished and punctuated by verbal flourishes that have become his stock in trade on the campaign trail. The bad news: the PC leader come across as a car salesman. “Any kid who runs a lemonade stand…” blah, blah, blah. The good news (sort of): Hudak may very well be the scary Mike Harris clone the Libs believe him to be, but Hudak chose his words carefully enough not to come off as the second coming of Iron Mike – except maybe when he used the words “affirmative action” to describe the Libs’ tax credit for businesses who hire immigrants.
Eyes wide shut Spin doctors have this thing they do with televised leaders debates. They turn down the volume and squint their eyes a little to see who best looks the part of leader. I tried it but found no obvious winner, maybe that’s because I wear glasses, although Hudak made an impression every time he smiled. It made him look like a Doberman Pinscher.
Gotcha moments Horwath’s hit on McGuinty’s home care spiel. “You had eight years to implement these programs.”
Horwath followed that zinger with another on the Libs’ now shelved plans for a gas plant in Mississauga. “Times have changed,” said McGuinty, in trying to explain the move. “The only thing that’s changed is the fact there’s an election,” responded Horwath.
McGuinty was on the defensive more than he probably wanted to be but got the best blows of the night in on Hudak. In one back and forth in response to the question on health care McGuinty asked, “Who do you want sitting at the table with PM Harper to negotiate a new health care accord for Ontario?” The answer: not Harp’s privatizing buddy Timmy.
The Preem also knocked one out of the park when Hudak raised the E-health scandal. “One billion went down the drain,” said Hudak. “That could have built four hospitals.” Ironic, considering Hudak was a member of a government that closed 28 hospitals when it was in power. But McGuinty dug into the paperwork in front of him to quote the words of a Tory senator and noted cardiologist on E-health, who said it would be “stupid” not to have spent the money converting hospital records into electronic format.
The Premier’s biggest blow on Hudak, however, was reserved for late in the program over that “foreign workers” remark, that the PC leader now denies making. That over the aformentioned Lib proposal to offer tax credits to businesses who hire immigrants. Hudak was caught flatfooted on that one, at one point sending a death stare McGuinty’s way. Hudak, though, continued to insist during the post-debate presser that he never used the word “foreign workers” in condemning the Liberal plan, despite ample video evidence to the contrary. He’s wearing this one all the way to E-day.
Hudak’s best broadside of McGuinty came over the Preem’s broken promise not to raise business taxes after he got elected. McGuinty said he wouldn’t but did so it’s a little, ahem, rich for the Preem, Hudak pointed out, to be accusing the NDP of secretly planning to raise corporate taxes when it was good enough for him. “No one believes you anymore,” shot Hudak.
Weird scene After taking McGuinty to task for not doing enough to create jobs during the post-2008 recession, Horwath volunteers the fact her brother works at the Toyota plant the Premier pointed to as an example of foreign investment the government is attracting to Ontario.
Weird scene part deux The NDP leader managed to inadvertently criticize health care workers Dippers are usually quick to defend by offering the example of her son who fractured his elbow in a skateboard accident recently, and was sent home by hospital staff with nothing more than advice to put his arm in a sling. Eek. She caught herself somewhat when McGuinty saw an opening. “That’s not a fair representation of the work our hospitals do,” said McGuinty. To which Horwath added: “They’re doing the best they can.”
Weird scene part three McGuinty invoking former Tory Preem Bill Davis to parry Hudak’s attacks. Ouch.
Social media stack The Twitterverse was filling up with positive responses to McGuinty during the debate, at times to the point where a dispassionate observer might ask if those tweeting were watching same program the rest of us were. Looks like Libs’ social media crew was out in full force. Ditto for NDP’s communications staff, which were sending Fact Check notices to the media via email during the debate. The best the PCs could muster was a statement released minutes after the debate declaring Hudak the winner. The PCs couldn’t write that script fast enough.
And the winner is… It was nip and tuck between Horwath and McGuinty. Most observers gave the slight edge to McGuinty for presenting himself as the forward-looking guy whose trying to green Ontario’s economy. But hard to deny, too, that Horwath managed to stake a claim as a serious contender for the job of Premier. Of course, conservative pundits will say Hudak won – and they were doing so in droves on talk radio and the blogosphere post-debate. Voters will have the final say October 6.
