8:00 p.m. Here we go with the French debate. One of the CBC's translators has a broad Australian accent. Weird. The leaders are seated around a table everyone in dark suits. Funereal, and possibly appropriate given the state of the economy.
8:06 Duceppe, asked about RRSPs, starts talking like a guy from EF Hutton about his own portfolio. The moderator cuts him off and tasks him to speak more generally.
8:11 Layton gets after Harper directly. They're constantly talking over each other. Like Monday Night Football with five colour guys.
8:13 Elizabeth May sounds crazy reasonable, mostly because she's not seeping testoterone. Her French is good.
8:16 Layton, playing the populist, is talking about the need for regulation to protect people against foreclosure. Fear-mongering...
8:18 Harper is going on about how the Canadian economy is rock solid. Dion keeps talking to the moderator, not attacking harper directly.
8:20 Layton links corporate tax cuts to deficit. This is not your parents' NDP.
8:23 Elizabeth May is crapping on fossil fuels, and says therefore she's against nationalizing the oil companies.
8:27 Stephane Dion will not address the other leaders - everything is addressed towards the moderator. Not good.
8:28 Harper defers to May. Even with that ridiculous haircut, it made him look like a gent.
8:32 Harper is responding to an aggressive attack by layton regarding subsidies for the oil industry. Sounds super reasonable. Now May is going off on Harper's ignorance on global warming; slightly hysterical.
8:37 Both Layton and Duceppe are going strong after Harper on Literiosis. Harper again seems reasonable. Dion is cutting everybody off to keep after Harper.
8:38 Now a question from Ordinary Canadian. Sylvie wants some sort of bureaucratic supra governmental organization to deal with polution. Even Elizabeth May thinks that's a lousy idea.
8:41 Harper agrees with Sylvie that saving the planet is a good idea. Dion's the only one who doesn't call the woman who asked the question by her first name. At least he knows enough to look into the camera.
8:44 I wish Elizabeth May would stop telling Harper his ideas are dangerous and a fraud. She's too overwrought for TV.
8:46 Everybody is jumping on Harper for his environmental record. More fingers pointing than at a four-way crosswalk.
8:48 Layton is trying to fend off Dion on Kyoto. Dion looks wounded. Now everybody's pilling on Harper again regarding environmental policy. Harper's saying he sent a lot of money to Quebec. That should work. Now May's talking about Harper ignoring the greatest problem ever to face humanity. Yes but how does that affect Quebec?
8:52 Dion finishes the section on the environment by explaining details of the green shift. Ugh.
8:54 New question from a guy who looks like he just got off the Red Green show: "What do you like about the leader to your left?" Now they're all praising each other. Harper's really loving Jack Layton.
8:58 Now Dion's loving Duceppe. May's got to say something nice about Harper. Calls him an autocrat like it's a good thing.
9:00 Now Layton's talking about the need for civility.
9:02 Hang on - Harper just agreed with Dion. Did hell just freeze over? Dion's now hammering away at harper for partisanship. It's a real showdown between the two. Harper is keeping his cool.
9:05 Harper's coming off as the soul of reason. Layton is running a close second. Layton talks about Harper's failure to respect parliament. Next topic: crime.
9:17 Question from a prof present at the Dawson College shooting about gun control. Everyone seems to agree hand guns are bad - stunning. Duceppe equates Harper with Bush. Now Harper has to defend his youth crime proposal to treat 14 year olds as adults for violent crime. Duceppe calls his proposal the university of crime. May is hectoring. Harper's on shaky ground here trying to sound reasonable about a proposal that's clearly red meat for the base.
