OTTAWA — The federal party leaders switched languages and shifted gears Wednesday night.
After Tuesday’s comparatively stiff and staid English debate, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have won on points, the four party leaders ramped up the rhetoric in a two-hour French-language donnybrook.
Harper’s understanding of Canada’s system of government came under immediate, sustained attack and the exchange on the legitimacy of coalitions in the parliamentary system was just the beginning of a sharp-elbowed evening.
The effectiveness of corporate tax cuts, the federal long-gun registry, the Conservative agenda on criminal justice, harmonized sales taxes — and a loaded question on the import of “Republican values” from the United States — made for a rather less comfortable evening for the front-running Tory leader.
Harper’s months-long effort to paint a potential coalition government as illegitimate was rebutted from the outset by Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe.
Duceppe cited a letter Harper wrote in 2004, with Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton onside, imploring the Governor General to explore “all options” if the newly elected minority Liberal government was defeated on its throne speech.
“We weren’t talking about a coup d’etat, obviously,” said Duceppe, drawing chuckles from the small studio audience that had been warned to remain silent.
Harper accused Duceppe of “trying to rewrite history” but the Bloc leader’s version of events was supported by Layton.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff appeared happy to allow the three conspirators from June 2004 to argue the point amongst themselves, steadfastly repeating that he’s campaigning for a Liberal government.
“They’ve got a problem with the coalition,” said Ignatieff, gesturing to the other three leaders lined up at the podiums on his right.
“That’s why I’m offering a clear alternative.”
On a night when the National Hockey League playoffs were getting underway, it was hardly surprising that a few hockey metaphors bled into the political discourse.
Layton tried to portray his Bloc Quebecois rival as the coach of a hockey team with no offensive players.
“You and your team, you’re like a hockey team made up of defencemen only,” he quipped. “The NDP can score goals.”
“The NDP has never had as many players on the ice as we have, so let’s stop telling stories,” Duceppe shot back.
Ignatieff, incredulous, blew the whistle on Layton.
“When did you score these goals?” he asked, citing the NDP’s indecision on whether or not to support a Conservative bid to scrap the long-gun registry.
“We were clear — we said we have to maintain the firearms registry if we want to protect Canadians. You didn’t score much of a goal there.”
Public interest in the May 2 federal election, Canada’s fourth in seven years, has been slow to build, but televised leaders’ confrontations — coming as they do at the mid-point of a campaign — usually signal the dinner bell on voter appetites.
All four campaigns will be visiting Quebec ridings Thursday in an effort to capitalize on any perceived momentum from the French-language tilt.
Not surprisingly, representatives of Harper, Ignatieff and Layton all claimed victory for their standard bearers after the first round.
“Michael Ignatieff wins debate with focus on economic choices, democracy and health care,” crowed the Liberals in a news release Wednesday.
“Jack Layton dominated the English language debate ... clearly articulating the concerns of Canadian families and proving he’s the only leader who can take on Stephen Harper,” boasted the New Democrats.
Conservatives, following Harper’s Tuesday night debate example of simply talking past his opponents, framed Round 1 this way: “A Clear Choice for Canadians: Low-Tax Stability and Security or High-Tax Uncertainty and Risk.”
Only the Bloc — perhaps feeling the English-language performance wasn’t worth the effort — didn’t bother to spin their leader’s efforts prior to the French debate.
Some 3.85 million viewers tuned in to Tuesday’s broadcast on three different networks — an increase of 22 per cent over the 2008 leaders’ debates, according to CTV.
Pundits, for the most part, gave the initial round to Harper simply because he appeared unflappable and prime ministerial in the face of attacks from three opponents.
Holding the French language debate last is a break from tradition. It usually serves as a warm-up act to the more widely viewed English debate, and tends to focus on regional Quebec issues.
This election, polls suggest all four federal parties can win seats in Quebec, whose 75 ridings make it the second weightiest province, after Ontario, in the House of Commons.
If Harper is to win his coveted majority, he’ll need to maintain the 11 Conservative seats he had when his minority government fell on March 25.
The Bloc has held least half the province’s seats in every federal election since 1993, while the traditionally strong Liberals have been reduced to 14 seats, most of them around Montreal. The NDP won a lone Montreal seat in 2008, their first ever in the province in a general election.
This year’s debates consisted of six segments, each featuring two leaders squaring off in a six-minute showdown after a pre-recorded question from a Canadian voter. Each segment ended with a brief free-for-all debate involving all four leaders.