Local federal election candidates were not impressed with the format for Monday night's televised debate that often saw participants talking over each other. (The Canadian Press)

By Glenn Hicks

digesting the TV debate

Local takeaways from the election TV test

Oct 8, 2019 | 12:03 PM

The Liberals and Conservatives don’t agree on much, but our local election candidates are in tandem regarding some of their thoughts on last night’s televised leader’s debate: The format was not good.

For much of the proceedings the six political leaders were talking over each other in a free-for-all that did little to improve the image or leadership credentials of any of the participants.

Prince Albert citizens will be hoping for a more enlightening experience tonight when the P.A. and District Chamber of Commerce puts on a forum with most of the local candidates. Organizers say they’ve designed the event to ensure ideas and platform policies are heard.

The West was left out

Speaking to last night’s debate, incumbent MP for Prince Albert, Conservative Randy Hoback, said the format seemed designed by the TV producers to grab soundbites rather than elicit deeper policy and ideas.

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“It was disappointing,“ he told paNOW. “In the House of Commons when you have the mic, the speaker turns everyone else’s mic off. I wish they would have done that so people could have made their points.”

Asked if was appropriate for his leader Andrew Scheer to make the pointed “you are a phoney and a fraud” attack on Liberal leader Justin Trudeau right off the bat, Hoback said those points were factual and the format seemed set up for that sort of statement.

“The media laid it out that way so it had to be that way,” he said, also noting the TV consortium who organized the debate made things clearly Eastern Canada centric. “It never discussed Western issues or anything about Western alienation.”

It’s not only about the leader

Liberal candidate Estelle Hjertaas was also critical of the format and how at times it was impossible to hear what was being said. However, she thought Trudeau came through the inevitable volley of attacks well, and conducted himself politely.

“He looked calm and he made his points clearly,” she said. “And he did, on multiple occasions when the other person wouldn’t stop talking, he did stop and gesture to the other person and let them finish their point.”

Hjertaas said it remained to be seen what impact, if any, the debate would have on voters’ intentions and stressed her hope that the public was also focused on their local candidates and were making the effort to learn what they thought.

Some political pundits said if anyone made a more positive impression in the TV debate it was NDP leader Jagmeet Singh who used the high-profile opportunity to ensure voters got to learn more about him and his style.

Singh makes impression

“I’m proud of our party leader,” Prince Albert NDP candidate Harmony Johnson-Harder said. “He was the only one who seemed to listen and answer questions properly when asked, and he didn’t stray away from them.”

Johnson-Harder said she was particularly impressed when Indigenous issues came up, and when the other leaders were arguing about pipelines Singh had talked about the issues and answered the questions. She said getting votes locally was a balance between the appeal of the party leader and herself as a candidate.

PPC shares stage

People’s Party of Canada candidate for Prince Albert, Kelly Day, found the format, along with offering only 40 seconds for responses was not good, but says she was excited that her leader Maxime Bernier had the chance to be involved, claiming the party saw a spike in online interest immediately afterwards.

“After the initial immigration portion when he was sort of on the defence and there was interruption from all sides, I thought he was one of the more stable, grounded, mature leaders in the debate,” she said.

Despite repeated requests, the paper candidate for the Green Party in Prince Albert, Kerri Wall, who is based in B.C., has not made herself available for an interview with paNOW.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

OnTwitter:@princealbertnow