Presidential candidates Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Richard Nixon are pictured tonight before they debated campaign issues on telelvision in September, 1960.The Associated Press
As per usual, there is so much self-interested hype from many quarters about how much next week's debates matter. God forbid - what if they don't?
We seem to have some quixotic notion in this country that the nation will sit down as one next Tuesday and Thursday to watch our political leaders battle then thereafter wait with bated breath for our opinion leaders to pontificate on who won. Horse feathers.
Not since the 1984 and 1988 elections have there been noteworthy debates. Even the legendary status of those Mulroney-Turner encounters has likely been romanticized. During that time if you were a Canadian media consumer you likely had little chance to escape the coverage of those battles. There was no Internet, Netflix, PVR, time-shifting and even cable television selection was limited. You would have had an easier time breaking out of Alcatraz than missing those showdowns.
With five federal elections in the last 10 years - four in the last seven as well as number of provincial elections and three U.S. national elections - Canadians have been subject to any number of political debates. All have been hyped to the high heavens and none of them have matched the pre-billing.
We have been saturated with spin about this must-see TV and its importance to our lives, but for the most part it is just time we don't get back that has little influence on how we vote ... if we vote. Nothing says "turn the channel" or "go for a walk" like four politicians with limited theatrical and rhetorical abilities bellowing poorly written lines at each other.
Given Election 2011 is our Seinfeld vote why should we think that on Tuesday and Thursday we are going to have our world rocked by four politicians who are just going through the motions? Yes, I'll be watching, but I am a hopeless political addict and lead a distorted life as a consequence. Nevertheless, I imagine many of my fellow citizens will have more interesting things to do.