Monday's Political Debate

The political debate between the federal parties of Canada was the most T.V. I've watched in a while. It was somewhat typical, like political debates usually seem to be. Each party twists their words into something that will make people vote for them, and the other candidates try to prove them wrong. Here's my spin.

I believe the most entertaining part was probably when Gilles Duceppe was arguing with Paul Martin over whether Quebec was a nation or not. Duceppe was upset because Martin and his Government hadn't been referring to Quebec as a "nation". Well no wonder, Quebec isn't a nation, it's a province. Come on Mr. Duceppe, you're refusing to call a spade a spade. However, Gilles made an excellent observation-- "Paul Martin campaigns like the NDP and governs like a Tory." This is true, but the Liberals are in the middle of the political spectrum, so it's sort of expected.

Stephen Harper answered questions like a politician, with that stupid smile on his face all the time. I hate that smile, it drives me insane! It's that "here's my politician face, I'm trying to pretend I'm happy about what I'm talking about so people will vote for me, teehee, lol". Seriously. Some of the Conservative Party's opinions seemed plausible to me, but in the meantime I want to smack that stupid smile off Mr. Harper's face with my math binder.

Paul Martin (ugly old P.M. that he is) was normal at first, but got extremely mad when arguing with Mr. Duceppe over the "Quebec is a nation/is not a nation" business. The argument got fairly heated, and let me tell you, it's rather comical to observe a politician trying to remain calm when the emotions in his head are in disarray.

Jack Layton of the NDP (duh, my favorite) had many good ideas, but unfortunately kept dodging questions. Toward the end of the debate, everything came out of his mouth as "my party wants to do this, or that, or promises this, or that" with nothing in particular relating to the question he was being asked. I'm unsure if this is because the questions were upsetting him, he didn't feel like answering them, or he didn't have the answers at all. He also did that crazy "politician hand waving thing" where he looks serious and shakes his fist around. I didn't actually notice it during the debate, but it provided for a good laugh on the way to school this morning. Even if Mr. Layton is a question dodger, however, I do wish the NDP had a strong chance to become Canada's governing party.

However, with the current poll results having 38% in favour of the conservatives and about 26% in favour of the Liberals, things appear to be getting rather dismal. We can only hope that a good government will come into play and help Canada fix some of it's problems. We must remember that at least we are not ruled by Castro, Hitler, Stalin or the like, so we at least have something to be grateful for.