Candice Malcolm reacts to ＂uncomfortable＂ Conservative leadership debate
Episode Stats
Words per minute
202.5336
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the first live debate that was held in front of a live audience in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We talk about how the moderator, Tom Clark, was harsh with the audience and the lack of reaction from the candidates.
Transcript
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The whole thing was just uncomfortable to watch and many, many people that I saw commenting on
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social media said that they just couldn't watch it. They just, it was just so, so bad. They
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couldn't watch it. So first, the first thing that happened was Tom Clark set out these ground rules
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that basically said that no one in the audience could say anything. You're not allowed to react,
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you're not allowed to clap, you're not allowed to boo, you're not allowed to show any emotion.
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We had our own Andrew Lawton on the ground in Edmonton. He reported that there was somewhere
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between 800 and 1,000 people in the room in Edmonton. So picture this. They have a debate
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in Edmonton, Alberta. They fly all the candidates out there. They fly the moderator out there.
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All of the campaign teams, all the insiders go to Edmonton. They sell tickets to this thing.
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They fill up a room. It's filled with conservative volunteers, activists, insiders, people who love
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politics, political junkies. They all travel to Edmonton. You know, people drive from the suburbs,
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people drive from rural Alberta to be there to see this thing. They fill up a room with nearly
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1,000 people. And then they order everybody to be completely silent. They weren't allowed to talk.
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They weren't allowed to react. What is the point of having all those people in a room? The purpose of
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filming these things in front of a live audience is to capitalize on the energy, having people react,
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knowing where the base stands, you know, who has the loudest applause lines. These are politicians.
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They react to applause, right? You're giving a speech, a public speech in front of 1,000 people.
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And you don't know what's resonating because you can't, people aren't cheering. People aren't
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allowed to cheer. So this whole idea that Clark set up here, that there was no, that there was
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silence, mandated silence of the audience was just terrible to me. Like there's no point in doing
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a live debate if you are not going to allow the audience to be part of the debate and feed off of
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their energy. So that was very brutal. And then worse off than that, when the crowd sort of ignored Tom
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Clark and continued to do what they're going to do, which is, Hey, this is politics. We want to cheer.
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We want to let the candidates know who, what, what ideas we like and what ideas we don't. Well,
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Tom Clark, the moderator jumped in and penalized Pierre Polyev because someone booed Jean Trace.