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Lee WalTransPETEtationNationzer🐝✈️🚊🚗

11 Sep, 25 tweets, 16 min read

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#LeadersDebate Thoughts from an American/Réfléchis d'un Américain
I'm glad I watched last night's Leaders' Debate in English in Canada. The difference between the 2 debates extended far beyond language - even though language also played a role in how each played out.

#LeadersDebate #CanadaVotes #Elxn44
Canada has a debates commission similar on some level to ours. I'd say that they messed up last night. The English-language debate moderators were, well, very American in their approach.

#LeadersDebate #CanadaVotes #elexn44
They asked long questions and they tried to be provocative; the French-language moderators from the previous night asked short questions and tried to keep themselves out of the limelight.

One thing different about Canadian election debates vs. ours is that the moderators are strict about time. They really snapped at candidates who tried to grab more time or talk over each other. #LeadersDebate #Elexn44 #CanadaVotes

It was like watching a teacher keep an unruly student in line - the party leaders initially accepted their discipline but, as the night went on, they began testing the limits and arguing with the moderators even more. #LeadersDebate #Elexn44 #CanadaVotes

The moderators also stopped participants who tried answering a different question than the one asked at times. The contrast with our debates here in the US was quite stark, especially the 2020 debates where Trump participated. #LeadersDebate #Elxn44 #CanadaVotes

Another small but interesting difference was in how moderators address a sitting prime minister vs. a president here in the US. In our debates, when an incumbent president is running for reelection, debate moderators address him (one day, it'll be her) as "President..." #Elexn44

In the Canadian debates, the moderators in both languages addressed Trudeau as "Mr. Trudeau" rather than "Prime Minister Trudeau." #LeadersDebate ##Elexn44 #CanadaVotes

The impact of language was stronger than I expected. In the French debate, 3 of the party leaders were non-native French speakers but I thought that they all handled the challenge of debating in a second language really well and generally had no problems expressing themselves.

Occasionally, the Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole threw in an English word or phrase.

There was only one non-native Anglophone, the Bloc Quebecois's Yves-François Blanchet (and why were the moderators pronouncing his name as Blan-shette? In French, "et" at the end of a word should be pronounced as "ay"). #Elexn44 #LeadersDebate

Hearing the debate in both languages changed my views of 2 of the party leaders: The Bloc Quebecois's Blanchet and the Conservatives' Erin O'Toole. Blanchet at times struggled to come up with the proper English words and asked his debate partners on stage in French 4 help.

Blanchet's party believes that Quebec should be independent and French should be the only language used there, but at the end of the day, Blanchet still needed help with English from his Anglophone colleagues. #elexn44 #LeadersDebate

His dust-up with Trudeau the night before over who speaks for Quebec (and by implication, who's a real Quebecois) actually annoyed me. As a former French major, I've always been sympathetic toward Quebec's efforts to safeguard the place of French in Quebec and ensure its primacy.

His sniping at Trudeau gave me a somewhat different view and I came away understanding why the issue of Quebec drives many Canadians crazy. #LeadersDebate #Elexn44

In one of his first English answers, Blanchet started off saying he has no desire to be the leader of Canada, yet he sits as the head of Canada's 3rd largest party in federal parliament.

Where language changed my opinion of a candidate the most was in the case of Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole. In French, he sounded contrived. In English, he sounded like a completely different politician -- smooth, commanding, calm. #Elexn44 #LeadersDebate

He really seemed to rattle Trudeau at times with his critiques of the PM. By the end of the debate, I thought that Trudeau and the Liberals should be worried. #Elexn44 #LeadersDebate

I found myself liking Green Party leader Annamie Paul, even if there was no way I'd ever vote for her. She was plain-spoken and her calls for greater diversity in Canada's leadership came across well. #LeadersDebate #Elexn44

As for the NDP's Jagmeet Singh, he comes across well but I thought his economic platform (think a cross between a Canadian Bernie and Warren) had no reality backing it up (sort of like both Bernie and Warren) and it showed as the debate went on. #LeadersDebate #Elexn44

No idea who'll win the election. Trudeau's best hope is to scare the public about the Conservative Party's views. O'Toole is a new leader trying to present a more moderate face but - sort of like Glenn Youngkin (the GOP candidate for governor here in Virginia) - he isn't.

Trudeau and the Liberals have some things going for them - their COVID policies and vaccine rollout are widely supported in Canada and their social and environmental policies are in sync with the views of most Canadians. #LeadersDebate

But he decided to gamble and call an election and he's been hammered for being opportunistic. Not sure it will resonate with Canadians but his opponents on stage (and the moderators) were hammering him on this.