Yes Gilles, it is curious.
Watching the federal election debate (not the down-home Sarah chat-fest on at the same time, although my attention was divided) the other night, something about the conversation struck me as … unnatural.
It wasn’t until Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe asked a rhetorical question that I was able to put my finger on it.
Duceppe, whose whole raison d’étre is the separation of Quebec from the evil tyrannical state known as ‘Canada,’ was sounding – wait for it – like a national leader. And not the type from the nationalist brand of la belle province – no, in tone and dialogue, he didn’t sound all that different than the rest of them yammering at each other around that oddly shaped table.
You know the one? It kind of looked liked a runway, or a curling rink, complete with a big red maple leaf embroidered in the middle of it. Guess that was to remind the ‘debaters’ why they were there.
Anyway, back to Gilles and the ‘say what?’ moment.
“Doesn’t anyone find it curious,” he asked the others, “that the Bloc Quebecois is the only party with a buy-Canadian policy.” Yes, actually I do. The guy was talking about a pan-Canadian approach.
The words may have come out slightly different, but that’s basically what he said, leaving the other leaders to scramble that they too backed a buy-Canadian model, with a lot of spin tossed in so that they at least gave the impression Canadians would benefit from government expenditures, even if they were made offshore.
Wow, good question, Gilles. How do I vote for that guy?
As the debate moved on, his Canadian credentials grew as he made frequent references to the provinces, seemingly content to have Quebec lumped in with them.
Elizabeth May, leader of the Greens, was, as predicted, feisty and just happy to be in on the show, although I was disappointed she didn’t wear the ‘broach’ that highlighted her attire the night before during the French-language debate.
You know the one I’m talking about: the ‘enviro-clasp’ – that adornment that could have been a leaf, a shell, a pod, or any other earth-friendly shape. Where do I get one of those? Not for myself, of course.
For a guy getting beat up over his delivery of English, Stephane Dion did okay. I understood him pretty well, and his integrity and sincerity shone through. But somebody needs to toughen him up a bit. He reminds me of the math geek determined to get the girl’s attention by going head-to-head with the jocks, and taking some hard knocks for his efforts.
When he took on Jack Layton over the Kelowna Accord, Jack turned all snarly and nasty, snapping at Dion and leaving him sputtering in indignation. It wasn’t pretty. That Jack, he has a mean hook. He also got off the best line of the night at the expense of Harper, asking the PM where his platform was, inquiring if it was under his sweater.
The PM, for his part, took the shots and largely avoided rising to the bait. He held his temper, and got off a volley or two of his own.
He said, for instance, that he had never used a private clinic, apparently a jab at Layton, who ‘clarified’ that the clinic he used was covered by OHIP, and therefore not ‘out of bounds.’
So, May was energetic, Layton was aggressive, Duceppe was weirdly statesmanlike, Dion was plaintive, but also principled, honest and trustworthy. Harper survived the onslaught, and perhaps that’s all he had to do.
