The candidates debate in Toronto Centre

Last night I ventured downtown to the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts for the final public all candidates debate for Toronto-Centre ahead of the March 17^th by-elections.

The theme was the role of the federal government in improving city life, although it didn’t stick to that theme in the Q&A. In attendance were the NDP’s El-Farouk Khaki, the Conservatives’ Don Meredith, the Liberals’ Bob Rae and the Green Party’s Chris Tindal.

The theatre was pretty full, the lobby overflowing and the crowd boisterous. It was my first time experiencing an all candidates meeting in an urban riding, and I must say it was a larger scale than in my rural experiences. Lots of non-related pamphleteers out front.

I thought Bob Rae did well. His political experience certainly showed, and he looked very relaxed on the stage. I was pleased to see he didn’t run away from Stephane Dion, but mentioned his name multiple times in his opening statement and regularly throughout the evening. I liked his point about the real fiscal imbalance being between the federal government and the municipalities, and his comment about making transfers to the cities incentive-based to reward green investment. I was also pleased to hear him support a call for a green tax shift, something not currently in Liberal policy but that he hinted may soon be. And since he’s co-chair of the platform committee it’s probably a safe bet. He also called for control of the Toronto port authority, including Island Airport, to be given to the city.

CPC candidate Don Merideth had a tough go of it. I almost feel bad for him, because he seems like a decent guy, and I don’t think he’s personally too far apart from most of the people in the room on many issues. Unfortunately he’s forced to sell a party with very different views, and people just weren’t buying. He said again and again the Conservatives are investing in and are committed to social housing and fighting poverty. People laughed. On safer ground talking crime, he said Liberals stood idly by in 2005 while “blood ran on our streets” and was booed down for the disgusting comment. On a foreign policy question, he mixed-up Afghanistan and Iraq not once, not twice, but at least thrice, talking about how our Liberal-inherited mission in Iraq was so important, ignoring the increasingly loud yells of Afghanistan! until the moderator stepped in. He said no to a carbon tax. I will give him credit for distancing himself from Jim Flaherty’s Ontario bashing. Ontario is not the 5^th province, he said, and Toronto is the economic engine of the country.

The NDP’s candidate, El-Farouk Khaki, didn’t impress me. When he wasn’t on script I liked some of what he had to say, but he seemed uncomfortable and very scripted. He kept harping on leadership, whether it fit the context or not, it was his answer to nearly everything. And I wasn’t impressed at all at the vocal NDPers in the audience who tried to shout-down Bob Rae with calls of Traitor! a number of times as he tried to speak. Not classy at all.

Along with Rae I’d say the most comfortable and at ease candidate on the stage was the Green Party’s Chris Tindal. He has the only candidate to have ran in the riding previously so that probably helped and, as he joked, allowed him to claim a kind of incumbency. He almost seemed to be doing a little stand-up comedy at times. But he also got some of the loudest ovations, and showed a strong grasp of issues green and non-green. I liked some of his comments around fair trade, for example, although we disagree on Afghanistan. He also got in some good shots at some of the other candidates. He rightly called Meredith out for trying to pass off a dollar figure that included highways funding as being all for transit. And, pointing out how it was nice Rae was calling for a green tax shift, that’s not Liberal policy today and if you want a green tax shift maybe you should vote for one that supports it today.

Even Rae said Tindal is the candidate on the stage that he most respects, and the only one of his opponents to run a campaign on ideas and issues. This is a by-election, and I think Tindal may have scored when he said if we elect a Green we’ll make history, and if you don’t like me you can vote me out in another month, week, or whenever the next election is.

I hear he has a lot of volunteers, and has raised more money than the NDP. Given the level of support he had in the room, I wonder how many people in the room may be planning a Green protest vote. Particularly Liberal supporters. It’s a pretty safe bet Rae will take this thing, even Meredith said it would “be a miracle” if he won. Given that it’s likely to be a Liberal win anyway, and given that Rae has been one of the anti-election leaders, I wonder how many Liberals might decide the way to send a message to the leadership is with a Green protest vote?

Might be something to watch next Monday.

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