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Originally Posted by Zarley
I don't think you are understanding my point. I believe that most non-partisans who watched the debates in whole would agree that Trudeau was outclassed by Mulcair and Harper overall. He was by far the most uncomfortable when conversation strayed from what he had prepped for, and he often refrained from joining the discussion - presumably to avoid making mistakes. Add one point during the Munk debate, the moderator had to prompt him to join the discussion after standing in silence for several minutes. He did have several short bursts of enthusiasm that came across well on the debate highlight compilations shown the next day.
In this way, the reduced reach of the debate was beneficial to the Liberals by limiting the exposure of Trudeau in a situation where he was obviously uncomfortable. The Conservatives made a miscalculation here.
The fact that the debates reached only an estimated 40% those that the consortium debate did in 2011 does indicate that the new system is different and indeed inferior. I really enjoyed the focus on foreign policy and economics, but I imagine it was only political wonks like myself who would have tuned in. You can't argue to me that reduced public exposure is a good thing for our democracy. John Doyle had a good article in The Globe explaining the shortcomings of the new formats. |
I don't agree with the bolded. Certainly Mulcair and Harper came across as more seasoned but a good many commentators of all stripes called Trudeau even or better on several debates. More than just exceeding low expectations, actually being competitive. I do agree he fell back on talking points a lot but so did Harper, he's just smoother at it.
The irony of the debates is that one major reason the Conservatives dropped out of the Consortium run ones is that they lost a court case that would have allowed them to use debate outtakes in political ads. Presumably they got better terms with the new debate hosts but ended up not getting any juicy sound bites from Trudeau.
As an aside, what happened to the Conservative's vaunted war chest? The Liberals are killing them in the advertising department.