Sunday, October 15, 2006

Now that's entertaining

I’ve been watching the Liberal leadership debate on Newsworld before heading back out to the airport. It’s the first debate I’ve watched since the first one back in Winnipeg, and I must say I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it in person.

As David Herle just said to Don Newman, Stephane Dion really ate his wheaties this morning. He’s been passionate and aggressive in going after both Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, I think and coming out on top from their clashes and throwing then off their games.


He went after Rae on his record on fiscal management and as Premier of Ontario, a record Rae has been trying to run away from. And he looked very good going after Ignatieff on the environment. When Ignatieff self righteously started repeating “we didn’t get it done, we didn’t get it done” attacking the Liberal record here I wanted to yell at Michael what WE? We were in Ottawa getting the fiscal house in order, WE were doing the heavy lifting and putting a framework in place. Michael was teaching at Harvard at the time. What WE, Michael? For the thirty-fifth time, we have a proud record and we need to stand on it, not attack or run away from it.


Volpe, Kennedy and Brison went at it on same-sex marriage and Scott really laid the smack down on Volpe over his past opposition to SSM. Gerard performed strongly on that one too I thought, looking thoughtful and strong, but Scott really did well there.

Off to the airport, I'll have to catch the post-debate spin later. Or not, if the pool at my hotel in Anaheim is more inviting.

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6 comments:

Penelope Persons said...

Damn, I just turned on the TV in time to hear the last 3 debate and the wrap-ups. But Dion blew me away - especially with his point that he had never done anything political he had to apologise for.

There was more, but I need to read blogs where they fil me in.

Penelope Persons said...

Oh yeah, watching the press prophets telling us what we saw - Dion said he'd been a Liberal for 10yr and that it hadn't taken a leadership race to make him become a Liberal.

Anonymous said...

Dion = awesome

made me proud to be a liberal

Anonymous said...

Dion is arrogant. He should be apoligizing for his lousy record as Environment minister. The auditor general just reported that while he was minister there was no accountability in programs. Further, our pollution record worsened while he was minister.

We have to learn from our mistakes as a Party, including why Dion and others lost the election. Mr. Dion needs to start being more humble. I don't see how we will renew the Party with Dion. Same old, same old.

Ted Betts said...

Jeff:

Dryden agreed with Iggy on the point though. We didn't get it done on the environmental file. Blame it on the Minister, the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister before that, but we didn't.

Anonymous said...

I tho there were some obvious holes in some of the bigger smack-downs -- as Ted noted, both Dryden and Ignatieff agreed that the previous Liberal gov't didn't succeed on the environment file and that Dion's pride got in the way -- including his almost embarrassing 'You don't know what you speak of!" blast -- to the point where he kind of lost me. Yes, he did show fire but there was a need for restraint, too.
His chop at Rae also was kind of a sidewinder. The Ont economy was especially broadsided by the recession and the multiple requirements to adjust to both the gst and nafta acts, that sandbagged the manufacturing industries. Rae looked good, in my estimation, in defending some of his decisions as a gov't trying to act compassionately -- whether it washes in Ont is what's important. Dion suggested that Chretien and Martin had compassion, too, but i think there were a lot of people crunched in the downloading to the provincial and municipal levels -- just jump back to the infrastructure debate to hear what we may helped produce.
Yes, stewards of the economy we were; but there was a cost at other departments and areas. Dion, trying to be the proudest man in the room, may have over-done his bit.
But it was a lively debate, non? What I love to read is that stiff at TdHuh?, who in the past 2 debates has witnessed his Kerry-esque man-of-la-mancha receive various smackdowns. Of course, he's tried to ignore both occasions, instead saying both debates were 'uneventful'. Yeh, right!