Approximately 175 people, maybe 50 of which who were not riding association members, showed up to tonights all-candidates debate in the riding of Cambridge, ON. The candidates are the Conservative incumbent Gary Goodyear, Liberal Gord Zeilstra (whose ads of been a constant prescence on my web-surfing due to my IP address), New Democrat Max Lombardi and Green Scott Cosman.
The format was two questions asked by members of the media and then open questions from the audience. The candidates had 2 minutes to answer and a 30 second rebuttal if they were referenced in another candidates answer.
As it turns out most of the audience questions were from partisans but in a twisted way this worked. All the parties had representation from the questioners resulting in a good balance and with the two main candidates contesting this riding, Goodyear and Zeilstra, getting as many favourable questions as direct challenges.
Gary Goodyear is a confident public speaker and projects competance in his answers. He is also, much to my surprise, a pitbull. Almost every answer he gave started by taking a shot at the Liberals. This elicited many boos and cheers from the partisan crowd. I must admit that the constant attacks grew tiresome for me but my father-in-law, no Conservative he, declared Goodyear the winner.
Gord Zeilstra projects a much better image than the previous Liberal candidate, three time winner in the riding during the Chretien years, Janko Peric. He was a bit unsteady in his answers, being a rookie, but the Liberals should not be embarrased with him as their flag bearer. Once he grows into the role he will be a tough opponent next time around.
Max Lombardi seemed under perpared for the debate - well either that or he is extremely crisp. He rarely used up his alloted 2 minutes to answer a question and is was not rare that his answers were under 30 seconds. He managed to work in the Jack Layton tagline of kitchen table vs. boadroom table several times and took his shots at the oil companies, banks and NAFTA so I would assume that means mission accomplished.
Scott Cosman was also a very good public speaker and he was very focused on getting his desired points across. Even if that meant completely ignoring questions and answering what he saw fit. By facourite was when a question about the North American Union/SPP was answered by saying we should get out of Afghanistan.
Cosman also provided by favourite moment of the night. The first question from the audience came from what I assume is a member of the Falun Gong. She had a long and mostly incomprehensible preamble that finished up by saying don't tell me that Chinese Communist Party is doing better on human rights, what are you going to do to stand up to them. Cosman's answer was that we all need to co-habitate and that the good of the many outweigh the good of the few. I am pretty sure that was not the answer she was looking for.
Looking back at my notes there was an impressive list of questions including topics such as the physician shortage, the revenue neutrality of a green shift, EI reform, youth-crime sentencing, electoral reform and NAFTA. Overall the residents of Cambridge who attended or who watched on Rogers Cable were treated to a lively and informative debate on the key issues in the campaign and if they were undecided before watching they should have a clearer idea of who is the best candidate. Assuming of course that people cast their vote based on their candidate rather than the party or the party leader.
