It’s always easy to be a “Monday morning quarterback”, however, since these leaders have spent weeks, if not months, doing debate prep, facing every possible question, with teams of researchers, I think my post critique is fair. Watching the debate last night I was repeatedly drawn to one thought, “I wish whoever is controlling Justin would take the leash off” I suppose this raises for the reader two questions, what makes me think Justin is “leashed” in the first place, and why do I want to see it off?
I will address them in order, it was obvious to even the most casual observer that Justin had been drilled on getting certain points across, over and over, without straying off target. I have read on various comment boards, criticisms at Justin’s “off the cuff” remarks, these seem to especially revolve around Bill C-51. These included his now infamous “I may have been naive” remark during the first national Leaders Debate sponsored by Macleans, among others. If managing the risk of a repeat, of this type of remark was the only objective, then I would say he/they succeeded, however, I’m certain that the objective was to reach Canadians. To have them consider Justin seriously as their potential Prime Minister. On that that second objective, I, like many of the pundits last night and this morning feel he failed. His constant talking over the other candidates, while trying to drive home his points made him appear desperate and to quote one person watching the debate here, immature, not the image we want, I know.
I want to see a return to the other Justin, the one that Canadians want to vote for, because they want to see him succeed. He must somehow find a way to become calmer during the presentation, he has to find a way to speak without the hesitations and especially the ums that seem to keep occurring through his speech, but most important, he must not try to over yell the other candidates, unless it is to defend himself and not allow others to try their cheap shots.
There were so many openings last night for us to see the real Justin, the Justin that Canadians want to vote for, not the one that childish Mr. Mulcair and his people want to call names and take cheap shots at.
“It’s also worth knowing that there are 35,000 homeless in Canada right now, so what we would do, I gave an example of our quality, affordable childcare at $15 a day” Tom Mulcair says. Well Mr. Mulcair, you obviously know nothing about the challenges that the homeless in this country are facing if you really think they are watching TV right now thinking, “boy I sure need that $15 a day childcare, I don’t have a house, but at least I can afford childcare.”
“Here’s what we’re offering Mr. Trudeau, you had 13 years the last time you were in power, it was in 4 successive “Liberal red books” and you know how many spaces you created, none.” Instead of his response of “that’s not true, Mr. Mulcair, he should have said, “Mr. Mulcair, it’s too bad it wasn’t a priority for the NDP when your party chose to team up with Mr. Harper in order to defeat the Paul Martin Liberal Budget, a surplus budget, with a National Child Care program, fully funded and supported by all the provinces, but your party was, as always more worried about itself, than Canada’s children.”
“Mr Trudeau went around the country, made a whole lot of promises, then found out that taxing a few wealthy Canadians is not going to do it.” “so now he’s trying to say that deficits are a good thing” Said Mr. Harper. Well it’s not Mr. Trudeau, that says deficits are a good thing, no less a source than Canadian Business, certainly no friend to the Liberals says the same thing. As far as the value in taxing the wealthy instead of corporations, if the links above don’t convince you, consider the report that the Banned TED Talk referred to, Taxes and the Economy CRS This is what Justin is talking about. Forbes says of the article “What do you do when the Congressional Research Service, the completely non-partisan arm of the Library of Congress that has been advising Congress—and only Congress—on matters of policy and law for nearly a century, produces a research study that finds absolutely no correlation between the top tax rates and economic growth, thereby destroying a key tenet of conservative economic theory?”
“This year our government is putting more into infrastructure, 15 times more than the last full year of the Liberal government” said Stephen Harper “Mr Harper lives by a belief that no matter what happens in the world, just keep on doing the same thing, because he doesn’t know any different. The Liberals Mr. Harper is criticizing, had a focus on getting our economic house in order. A focus that resulted in the largest surplus in Canadian history and reduced federal debt, what did Mr. Harper do? He immediately took the country into a deficit. In spite of a decade of waste, deficits and pork-barreling unprecedented in Canadian history. And for proof Canadians can take their choice from Senate appointments under criminal investigation for fraud, to millions of dollars for an artificial lake, imagine, Canada had to spend millions to build a lake.”
“The Prime Minister is hitting the snooze button while Mr Trudeau is hitting the panic button”, quipped Tom Mulcair, Justin should have told him, “Mr Mulcair, your glib lines may play well for newscast sound bites, however, I am here to offer serious solutions to serious problems, if you want to be a comedian, perhaps you should call CBC, if they can produce a new show after Mr. Harper has gutted it.”
“Canadians are entitled to know the numbers, the NDP put their numbers out there, we put out a costed plan yesterday,” “we put out numbers and neither of these will do the same” Tom Mulcair said. What Justin Trudeau should have said, “Mr. Mulcairs idea of a detailed, costed plan is a glossy brochure, seven pages long including a letter from him, a summary of previous points, one bar graph and four general reviews from economists near the back, and a lined page for notes. Really? In Mr. Mulcairs world a blank page for notes counts as part of his economic plan.”
For those who wish to make up their own mind as to whether the NDP plan is enough for the future of Canada, I post it here and invite you to review Mr. Mulcairs plan for Canada balancedfiscalplan-en
On the water issue of Tom Mulcair supporting Fresh Water Exports, I feel Justin allowed him off far too easy, I would have rather heard something like “What happened to your respect for the voting public Mr. Mulcair? You are standing on this stage and lying to them. You know you supported it, the Journal des débats (the Hansard) of the Quebec National Assembly, has you clearly on record, in fact you yourself gave numerous radio, print and even television interviews in support of the position, now you stand here and lie to the people you claim to respect, you have a funny way of showing respect Mr Mulcair.”
Speaking of Corporate Taxes Mr. Mulcair said, “When we do raise it, … it’ll even be below the average of what it has been under the the Conservatives.” Tom Mulcair, “That is the magic of Tom Mulcair accounting, he will raise taxes, and yet make them lower”
I believe that the overwhelming majority of “progressive” Canadians want to vote for Justin Trudeau. I am not talking here about the polls that favour one leader over another, or ask which leader do you trust. I believe that Justin has been Canada’s child. We watched him grow up, we mourned with him at his brother’s and father’s funeral, and now we want to see him make good. However, Canada is a tough parent, made even more so, after 10 years of Stephen Harper