OTTAWA — For anyone hoping to separate the wheat from the chaff in the NDP leadership contest, Sunday’s first all-candidates debate provided little grist for the mill.
With nine candidates vying to make their mark during the two-hour debate, no one had a real opportunity to shine — or fall flat.
The affair was largely collegial, with candidates sticking closely to tried-and-true social democratic bromides for the ailing economy and rarely disagreeing.
The only sparks came during a brief exchange between Brian Topp, the former party president, backroom strategist and confidante of the late Jack Layton, and Paul Dewar. That Topp chose to challenge Dewar over how he would pay for his spending promises had New Democrats buzzing that the presumptive frontrunner must feel threatened by the Ottawa MP.
The flicker of disagreement occurred early in the debate during a three-minute, three-way exchange between Topp, Dewar and Montreal MP Thomas Mulcair on a question about their approach to the green economy. Topp, who has proposed hiking income tax on the wealthiest individuals and corporations and mused about increasing the federal sales tax once the economy is on surer footing, questioned how Dewar proposes to pay for things like his proposed east-west energy grid and national infrastructure program.
“At the end of the day, what you’re proposing to do with all of these plans is essentially to finance them by putting them on the public debt,” Topp chided Dewar, noting that the Ottawa MP has ruled out increasing sales taxes.
“I thought we were talking about the environment,” retorted Dewar.
Topp countered that if the NDP doesn’t have a credible plan to pay for its promises, “then the risk that you run is that we don’t get elected or, if we do get elected, that we have a plan that we can not deliver.”
Dewar said Topp seems to be “fixated” on taxes and pointed out that his proposals for creating jobs and growing the economy in an environmentally sustainable way have won the backing of some economists.
Mulcair chipped in that a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions would generate a lot of revenue. Dewar agreed and their time was up.
Topp, the only one of the leading contenders with no experience as an elected politician, was under pressure going into Sunday’s debate to demonstrate he wouldn’t be steamrolled by more experienced debaters. That may account, in part, for his willingness to mix it up a bit.
He later told reporters he didn’t single out Dewar for any reason other than that he felt the randomly drawn three-way exchange was a good opportunity to make his point about the need to specify how an NDP government would pay for its promises.
“So I kinda tapped gloves with him a little bit to see if he wanted to talk about it. In the event, he chose not to engage seriously in the discussion and that was his choice, not mine.”
He dismissed suggestions he views Dewar, who has mounted a strong grassroots campaign, as a threat.
“I think I have a pretty good idea of how the race is shaking down so far. I mean, I respect all of my opponents but that wasn’t what was going on there. I just took the view that if we’re going to have a debate, let’s have a debate about something.”
However, Dewar took Topp’s interest in him as a flattering sign.
“Things are looking really good for us on the ground, our organization is getting stronger and stronger, more people coming to us,” he told reporters. “I put out a jobs plan, I did it early, I have ideas people are talking about. So I guess, Brian wanted to challenge me on that and that’s what debates are for.”
Mulcair’s refusal to jump into the Dewar-Topp quasi-dust-up was intriguing. His camp has been touting the fiery, combative former Quebec cabinet minister as the only contender capable of standing his ground with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
But there was no sign of that on Sunday. Criticized by some as abrasive and not a team player, Mulcair was all affability and collegiality throughout the debate. He took up half his 50-second closing statement thanking party volunteers for staging the debate and congratulating his rivals for taking part.
The first hour of the debate was in English, the second in French.
Curiously, Mulcair spoke French for half of his 50-second opening remarks, missing an opportunity to reach New Democrats outside Quebec, which accounts for only about six per cent of the party’s membership despite delivering more than half the NDP’s 103 seats in last May’s election.
Toronto MP Peggy Nash, the party’s finance critic before joining the leadership contest, agreed later that the NDP must “of course” spell out how it would pay for its program. But she took on Topp’s recipe of hiking taxes on the wealthy, telling reporters that “taxes are one piece” of the puzzle.
“Having a strong economy is another key element in funding our social programs and funding our infrastructure needs,” she told reporters.
Overall, the debate likely did little to shake up the perception that there are two tiers of candidates: Topp, Dewar, Mulcair and Nash in the top tier and everyone else in the second tier.
However, B.C. MP Nathan Cullen’s easy humour and relaxed demeanour may have some New Democrats taking him more seriously. He joked at one point about being “in violent disagreement” with his rival candidates and took a humorous poke at the Harper government’s record on affordable housing.
“A government that believes that a national housing strategy is to build more prisons is a government that’s out of touch and perhaps out of its mind,” Cullen said.
Nova Scotia MP Robert Chisholm’s inability to speak more than a few tortured, rehearsed lines of French prompted some questions from reporters about whether he should drop out of the race. Chisholm vowed to learn French but questioned whether other candidates would be able to learn the leadership skills he gained as a former NDP leader in Nova Scotia.
About 500 New Democrats attended the debate, under orders not to applaud or otherwise show a preference for any of the candidates. Many of them, however, sported small Dewar buttons, hardly surprising as the debate took place in his hometown.
Also taking part in the debate were Quebec MP Romeo Saganash, Manitoba MP Niki Ashton and Nova Scotia pharmacist Martin Singh.
A number of non-aligned party members remained undecided as they left the debate.
“It was very interesting. I wouldn’t say there was any winner there,” said Gaetan Menard.
“I’m still waiting to see how the rest of the debates go but I was very impressed with all of them,” said Catherine Matthews. “One of the things I really did like was how collegial it was. I do not want to see a debate where people are being highly undermining and critical.”
Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who is backing Topp, said all nine candidates made him “proud to be a New Democrat.”
There will be five more party-sponsored debates across the country in the new year, culminating in a leadership vote on March 24.
The contest was triggered by Layton’s untimely death from cancer in August.