As a regular viewer of many political debates, this one was no better and no worse than others. It provided viewers with a basic political and personal profile of the contenders which, in the end is what most people are looking for. Specific policies come and go. I look for the broad ideological bent and character profile of leaders.
Paul, you really do make me happy that I "missed" the event. Actually I don't / didn't miss it; I just had a better option available to me: absolutely everything else.
I watched it and was appalled to see these candidates treated like kindergarten children by such a paternalistic host. The trite gameshow format was insulting. I blame CTV for trivializing the event/format and am amazed the candidates agreed to show up. And while I'm ranting, chastising and punishing the candidate and the crowd when they enthusiastically responded was odious. Next time, offer your services, Paul. You did a fine job moderating the 2019 Macleans'/CityTV debate our not-so-illustrious, dare I speak his title??, PM, did not deign to show up for. I guess foreign policy was not a 'sexy' enough topic for him, then or ever.
Time to drop the debates. Totally useless, downright embarrassing. Next French debate will be a bigger sh*t show given level of their French -- majority nil. Radio-Can had great Q&A sessions during fed election between each candidate and a panel of journalists, going into details and challenging positions of national importance, NOT what they watch on Netflix or dead person they'd bring back to life for dinner. Pathetic.
Do you seriously think that the candidates, with one or two exceptions, would have been able to provide more substantive answers to the questions, if they had been given more time? Most ran out of their cliches after 30 seconds!
It literally broke my TV. This was probably a coincidence but maybe it had something to do with the horrific flickering blue background. Now I have to watch things through a vertical yellow line.
As someone who knew nothing about any of the candidates, I actually enjoyed the content despite the terrible format, amateur audio/video, and underprepared moderator.
Unfortunately the state of the media in this country is such that if one wants to know what's going on, it's necessary to view source material. I'm optimistic that this newsletter will help improve that situation.
Debates have become (or have always been ?) a circus with very bad and sad clowns degrading themselves in schoolyards fights. It is fair to assume that these ludicrous « debates » are contributing to our collective vanishing respect for the political class (lack of a better word). Others in this thread have mentioned that in the last federal election, Radio-Canada had the brilliant idea of having each leader (alone, all doors closed, zoomed in by an unforgiving camera) facing for 90 minutes, hard questions from top-gun Radio Canada journalists who would simply not accept half-answers. That should be the real thing -let’s scrap these debates (we hit bottom a long time ago). Paul should definitely be on that panel, Céline Galipeau as well. What other top gun journalists from Western/Eastern Canada ? Not even sure Charest or Poilievre would accept the challenge.
I truely wish therrnwas a alternative to the Liberals. At least the NDP can be trusted on domestic issues, but defense or foreign policy.... not so sure
Didn’t watch it and I’m sorry you had to.
Poor Pierre was left up the creek without a paddle!
As a regular viewer of many political debates, this one was no better and no worse than others. It provided viewers with a basic political and personal profile of the contenders which, in the end is what most people are looking for. Specific policies come and go. I look for the broad ideological bent and character profile of leaders.
Oh Paul! Thank you, thank you for having the skills to write what I think! Great piece!
Paul, you really do make me happy that I "missed" the event. Actually I don't / didn't miss it; I just had a better option available to me: absolutely everything else.
I watched it and was appalled to see these candidates treated like kindergarten children by such a paternalistic host. The trite gameshow format was insulting. I blame CTV for trivializing the event/format and am amazed the candidates agreed to show up. And while I'm ranting, chastising and punishing the candidate and the crowd when they enthusiastically responded was odious. Next time, offer your services, Paul. You did a fine job moderating the 2019 Macleans'/CityTV debate our not-so-illustrious, dare I speak his title??, PM, did not deign to show up for. I guess foreign policy was not a 'sexy' enough topic for him, then or ever.
Time to drop the debates. Totally useless, downright embarrassing. Next French debate will be a bigger sh*t show given level of their French -- majority nil. Radio-Can had great Q&A sessions during fed election between each candidate and a panel of journalists, going into details and challenging positions of national importance, NOT what they watch on Netflix or dead person they'd bring back to life for dinner. Pathetic.
Very frustrating to watch indeed. It seemed to be a debate for high school president instead of choosing someone to become Prime Minister of Canada
Do you seriously think that the candidates, with one or two exceptions, would have been able to provide more substantive answers to the questions, if they had been given more time? Most ran out of their cliches after 30 seconds!
M Kergin
1. The fact that candidates weren't constantly yelling over top of one another was a plus.
2. Useful to learn that none of them read books.
3. BREAKING: The moderator likes Call my Agent, plus he's seen the last season of Ozark
If I had to vote today it would be Scott Aitchison.
It literally broke my TV. This was probably a coincidence but maybe it had something to do with the horrific flickering blue background. Now I have to watch things through a vertical yellow line.
As someone who knew nothing about any of the candidates, I actually enjoyed the content despite the terrible format, amateur audio/video, and underprepared moderator.
Unfortunately the state of the media in this country is such that if one wants to know what's going on, it's necessary to view source material. I'm optimistic that this newsletter will help improve that situation.
This was very entertaining!
Debates have become (or have always been ?) a circus with very bad and sad clowns degrading themselves in schoolyards fights. It is fair to assume that these ludicrous « debates » are contributing to our collective vanishing respect for the political class (lack of a better word). Others in this thread have mentioned that in the last federal election, Radio-Canada had the brilliant idea of having each leader (alone, all doors closed, zoomed in by an unforgiving camera) facing for 90 minutes, hard questions from top-gun Radio Canada journalists who would simply not accept half-answers. That should be the real thing -let’s scrap these debates (we hit bottom a long time ago). Paul should definitely be on that panel, Céline Galipeau as well. What other top gun journalists from Western/Eastern Canada ? Not even sure Charest or Poilievre would accept the challenge.
And then there was Dief and Coyne!😊
I truely wish therrnwas a alternative to the Liberals. At least the NDP can be trusted on domestic issues, but defense or foreign policy.... not so sure