Monday, January 09, 2006

Round II (ding, ding, ding)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Prime Minister Paul Martin. It's about as appetizing as choosing between fried fish eyes or boiled pig intestine. Both kind of make you want to vomit.

Or at least that's how I feel after watching tonight's leaders' debate. Let's face it, this is a two-horse race. On the upside, that means one of these guys will be history after Jan. 24.

I didn't learn much from tonight's debate. Each of the leaders seemed to focus on how bad the other guy was rather than on how good their own policies were.

Just like last time, Jack Layton told us to vote NDP after every single question. Unlike last time, Stephen Harper made a point of smiling. A lot. But he should have practiced in the mirror first.

He would randomly insert forced smiles as he talked about hospital wait times and getting tough on crime. Someone should have told him that it's only appropriate to smile when you say something clever or are trying to lighten the mood. Otherwise it just looks weird. He reminds me of poor Pinocchio, trying so hard to be human.

Paul Martin didn't fare much better. He was on the attack and was yelling so loudly that at one point I had to turn down the volume. Martin didn't inspire much confidence. He even seemed scared. Things aren't looking good for the Liberals.

Harper clearly had the upper hand throughout the debate. But was he prime ministerial? Not to me. I can't shake the image of him as a Reform MP. Or the image of him standing up in the House of Commons saying he supported the war in Iraq. I wouldn't trust him to sell me a used car, let alone run the country.

As for Gilles Duceppe, he injected some much-needed comic relief into the debate. Like when he called Paul Martin a "living democratic deficit." What? What is that? Some kind of crazy separatist burn? Oh Gilles, you crack me up.

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