And The Winner Is......

Jack. Yep it was Jack who scored the most hits on Martin and Harper and Duceppe, in tonights debate. He appealed to the Quebec audience as an alternative to (best line of the night) "Duceppes Canada without Quebec, Harpers Americanized Canada and Martins Canada for Liberals."

And while the media and the other leaders complained in the scrum that the format of the debate was dull, Jack loved 'talking to Canadians', and enjoyed the debate format. Cause you could actually hear the policy differences.

This format could be tweeked as Duceppe said to allow more direct encounters, and probably should be for round two. But it was a refreshing change from last years English language debates that went over the top due to bad moderators and format.

Distraction of the night will he or won't he use the not withstanding clause. Harper backing off using it, which means that he would hold a useless free vote in the house. Martin demanding he anwser will you won't you use the accord. Jack got the hit in during the scrum, its a moot point, parliment has passed SSM and you don't take human rights back.

Goof. Martin claiming that a cut to income tax is better than a cut to the GST. Huh? The GST is a regressive consumption tax. And this guy was finance minister.

Best punchline goes to Duceppe 'We must punish the Liberals'. He said punish over and over again with relish. In Quebec it's code for Vote BQ. In the ROC its a call to vote NDP or Conservative so its not much of message. Of course the pundits and commentators give the win to Duceppe, but thats a given if all you look at is his ability to debate in French. What he had to say, was not as effective as Jack.
Jack looked at the camera and said that there was an alterantive to Duceppe and the Liberals and it wasn't Stephen Harper. Points for that.

Straight Answer Please. Harper the policy wonk has a hard time anwsering simple straight forward questions. Tonight was another gaffe on the same level as his failure to say he loves Canada. Asked if he would swear on a bible to keep his election promises, he said he didn't undertand the question and talked around it.
Jack on the other hand said 'absolutely', no hesitation there.

Check out the CBC Blow by Blow Report on the Debate.