Western Standard - CORY'S RANT： CPC circus debate

00:00:00.000 Now first, I'm going to play a quick clip of the best hits of last night's debate before I go into

00:00:05.620 my breakdown of it. It was really something else. If you didn't watch it, this will give you a good

00:00:10.580 flavor of what it was really quite about. You can't mention any other candidate on the stage

00:00:16.140 and you can't mention any other federal leader. If you do, there's going to be trouble and here's

00:00:21.220 what you're going to hear. Example, and I'm going to use the name of another party leader now,

00:00:28.060 but if you look at the way the prime minister used vaccine mandates and actually divided Canadians

00:00:34.580 by demonizing one group over another. You know the rules. You've just broke them. We're moving on.

00:00:38.660 Okay. And a captain of your own life. Thank you.

00:00:46.980 All right. Folks, here's the deal. Supporters of any candidate, the time that you cheer is going to be

00:00:53.640 taken away from your candidate. Just so you know, that's the way the deal works here.

00:00:56.900 But when have we ever heard the prime minister say, I believe in this project. I think it should

00:01:03.520 happen. And yes, please, I'm delighted to name them if you want me to.

00:01:07.420 You heard that. And for you, what book are you reading now? But when you have the opportunity

00:01:12.500 to sit down and listen to some music, what do you listen to?

00:01:16.300 Well, pick a local hero, Paul Brandt, Alberta Brown.

00:01:19.140 You got to let them applaud that, Tom. Come on.

00:01:24.560 Thank you, candidates, very much. It was a challenging format, but I think that we did well.

00:01:30.620 And that was just a handful of high points or low points or whatever you want to call them

00:01:43.800 from last night's debate. I've really never seen anything quite like it. So I'll break it down.

00:01:48.120 I mean, I'm a political weenie. There's no denying that. And over the years, I've watched countless

00:01:52.760 leaders' debates from multiple parties. I've seen some with fireworks and yelling and hollering and

00:01:58.760 some that are dull enough to put me to sleep even if I drank half a gallon of espresso.

00:02:03.780 I've never witnessed a bizarre debacle like I did last night, though, with the Conservative Party

00:02:07.660 of Canada leadership debate in Edmonton. This is the first debate held, or the first debate that

00:02:12.860 was held with the CPC leadership candidates was an unofficial one. It was held by the Canada Strong

00:02:18.000 and Free Network at their annual conference in Ottawa. Now, that debate was heated and had a lot

00:02:22.620 of vicious confrontational exchanges between the candidates, Pierre Polyev and Jean Charest.

00:02:27.280 The other candidates had a hard time even gaining notice on the stage as the scraps continued

00:02:31.660 between those two perceived frontrunners. Now, pundits and Conservative politicians expressed

00:02:37.440 concerns that such vitriolic displays could sour voters on the Conservatives and divide the party.

00:02:42.520 Preston Manning and even ironically, Jason Kenney spoke up on the division being fostered with

00:02:46.380 debates and with candidates being so antagonistic with each other. The debate held in Edmonton was the

00:02:52.360 first official one, so all six candidates for the leadership were in attendance.

00:02:56.880 I was looking forward to hearing more, what I'd hoped to be more nuanced policy discussion from

00:03:01.500 more than just two candidates, and I was to be disappointed, to say the least. Now, to begin with,

00:03:06.640 the audio quality was reminiscent of high school assemblies I had to attend back in the 1980s.

00:03:12.420 Feedback blasted the audience as the event began, and there was an audible humming sound that was

00:03:16.940 assailing the ears of listeners going forward from that period on. As well, the candidates were set

00:03:21.720 up in front of these large monitors, which perhaps looked good from afar, but it led to a blurred and

00:03:25.920 almost nauseating effect whenever the cameras zoomed in closely to the individual candidates.

00:03:31.280 Once the audio was settled enough to get the event underway, we were treated to an uninterrupted

00:03:36.540 two-hour awkward moment. That's the best way I could put it. You know, the term cringe that's used

00:03:41.080 almost too much. In this case, it applied very well to last night's debate. And what I can imagine

00:03:46.520 was a response to the somewhat haywire debate in Ottawa. Organizers created a format they felt would

00:03:51.400 prevent candidates from going off the rails in Edmonton. Moderator Tom Clark laid down the law

00:03:56.640 with strict rules. If any candidate mentioned another politician or candidate, they would be

00:04:00.840 interrupted by that sad trombone sound effect that you heard earlier. I thought this was some sort of

00:04:05.760 joke, but quickly within the first round, Jean Charest was interrupted with the trombone because

00:04:11.000 he said, Prime Minister. Charest was flustered and annoyed. And who can blame him? It was bizarre.

00:04:17.080 Another rule Clark laid out was that candidates would be penalized with reduced speaking time if

00:04:22.200 their supporters made any noises, such as clapping or cheering. Polyev ran a foul of this rule repeatedly

00:04:27.080 as his microphone was shut down. Polyev was also penalized when audience members booed Charest over

00:04:32.440 something he'd said. The moderator just assumed the offenders were Polyev supporters. It was just weird.

00:04:38.040 The debate was constantly interrupted as the moderator stopped to scold both candidates and

00:04:43.880 audience members for their misbehavior. Clark was in full school marm mode and he seemed to relish it.

00:04:50.440 Even without interruptions, it was hard to get anything of substance from the candidates.

00:04:54.200 For the first portion of the event, they were limited to 15 second response times.

00:04:58.120 Even items like abortion. Can you talk about abortion in 15 seconds? I despise formats where

00:05:02.920 candidates can drone on for minutes with every question, but 15 seconds was just ridiculous.

00:05:08.520 And the event took an even stranger turn. As a series of fluffy questions were presented to

00:05:13.960 candidates in some sort of effort, I guess, to humanize and get to know them, candidates appeared

00:05:18.120 to be taken off guard as they shuffled and came up with answers to such pressing questions as,

00:05:23.560 which TV show have you most recently binged on? Or who is your hero? I was surprised that the

00:05:29.560 moderator didn't ask them what their favorite color was or how they like their eggs cooked at breakfast.

00:05:34.680 Next, the debate moved on to a game show type of format. Candidates were issued these paddles and they

00:05:39.880 were instructed that they have to raise them in hopes of being chosen to respond to topics during the

00:05:45.320 debate. And those number of responses had a limit to them. So a number of candidates weren't allowed to

00:05:51.640 respond to segments in the later part because they'd used up their paddle time. It was really weird.

00:05:56.040 Leslie Lewis was repeatedly mixed up on when or how she would be able to speak and

00:06:00.440 she can't really be blamed. The moderator didn't seem sure who was still allowed to speak or not

00:06:04.520 either after this weird period of the paddle mode of the debate. I mean, if you want to make it

00:06:09.240 interesting, have them paddle each other, but the stupid raising of it was just weird. The agonizing 0.99

00:06:13.880 debate mercifully closed off with short statements from the candidates as they doubtless were eager to flee

00:06:19.240 the stage from this debacle. If the intent of the organizers was to create an event that would

00:06:24.120 appeal to viewers and instill confidence among people in the ability of the Conservative Party

00:06:30.680 of Canada, they failed dismally. They would have been better off not holding a debate at all than

00:06:34.520 having created this strange event. The campaign for the leadership of the CPC is going to be a long one.

00:06:39.640 Members don't vote until September 10th. This is a blessing as I can only imagine the party wants

00:06:43.720 people to forget the spectacle they created in Edmonton for their English debate.

Western Standard - May 12, 2022

CORY'S RANT： CPC circus debate

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