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Challenged, Martin Shows Mettle

Facing a flurry of attacks on Friday..

Bill Tieleman 17 Dec 2005TheTyee.ca

Bill Tieleman is president of West Star Communications, a strategy and communications consulting firm, providing services for labour, business, non-profits and governments for the past 13 years. Previously, he was the communications director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.

Bill is a former columnist with The Tyee and 24 Hours. He regularly comments on TV, radio, print and Internet media outlets.

Most recently Bill was Strategist for Fight HST, a grassroots organization he started with former Premier Bill Vander Zalm and others, that successfully overturned the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia through a citizens’ initiative petition and binding referendum.

Bill holds a masters degree in political science from UBC.

Twitter: @BillTieleman

Website: Bill Tieleman

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"This is degenerating into a debate." -- Cabinet Minister Jack Pickersgill, August 10, 1956, House of Commons

Conservative leader Stephen Harper is in a lot of trouble after Friday night's English language leaders' debate , and for once, it is not because of something stupid that he or one of his rambunctious right-wing candidates said.

Stephen Harper, the robot who would be Prime Minister, put in a solid, credible performance that was informative, reassuring, confident and calm. View the debate online here.

At the Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, the wide variety of journalists from across Canada with whom I was watching the debate were probably preparing to file stories saying Harper looked prime ministerial and perhaps had even won the debate on points.

Martin: 'This is my country'

But then late in the night Paul Martin showed Harper how he got to the top of the greasy pole we call the Prime Minister's office.

With a surprisingly dumb helping hand from Bloc Quebecois leader Giles Duceppe, Martin made what was clearly the winning statement of the debate and a memorable clip that will be replayed throughout the campaign.

Duceppe set Martin up in response to Ontario viewer Don Matheson's question asking what action the party leaders would take if a separation referendum in Quebec passed and the Parti Quebecois declared Quebec to be a sovereign state?

Duceppe responded matter of factly that: "I think in the best mutual interests of both countries if we succeed as sovereigntists will be to start negotiating a better settlement, a better deal for both countries."

Martin saw the opening he had been waiting for all evening and, watching the cameras to see both he and Duceppe were on screen instead of just himself, fired his best shot in years.

"Let me say also that I am a Quebecer, and you are not going to take my country away from me with some trick, with some ambiguous question. You are not going to do an 'astuce' as Jacques Parizeau said."

"This is my country and my children were born and raised in Quebec, and you're not going to go to them and say that you're going to find some backdoor way of taking my country or dividing Quebec family against Quebec family.

Martin continued to pound Duceppe as the hapless Bloc leader realized his mistake but could do nothing because the "debate" format was anything but and his microphone was turned off.

"I believe that we do appeal to the deep attachment, the deep love of this country that Quebecers have and you're not going to win, Mr. Duceppe. Let me tell you that," Martin concluded.

It was a well-rehearsed, patriotic piece of puffery but Martin delivered it with the right mixture of emotion and passion to ensured it was the single best clip of the night.

Layton whacks PM

After Martin's slam, among the journalists at the Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver there was an audible buzz.

An avowedly right-wing columnist sitting next to me muttered "brilliant, absolutely brilliant" after Martin's statement.

Harper was almost out of time and didn't respond to Martin's challenge by making an emotional statement of his own. Instead, after following Martin in responding to a viewer question that asked the leaders what Canada's greatest asset is, Harper replied: "Unfortunately, I have the same answer as Mr. Martin." Wrong answer.

In a short scrum after the debate Harper lamely defended himself. "My goal is not simply to express emotion. My emphasis is to make sure people know where we will lead," Harper said. New Democratic Party Jack Layton had to be nearly as frustrated as Harper by the debate's conclusion.

Layton put in a good performance and clearly had the strongest hit on Paul Martin of the night.

After Martin claimed he had a record of keeping his promises, Layton whacked the prime minister hard for "broken" Liberal vows on child care, international aid, Pharmacare, and reducing greenhouse gases.

"The problem is he has been breaking promises for so long that he doesn't even recognize it any more, I guess," Layton said.

"What are the promises he has broken? To reduce pollution - it's up by 24 per cent despite timetables and promises."

"To international aid, so that Canada would be a leader. Broke that promise. Bono is no longer supporting the prime minister's initiative and neither are Canadians," Layton continued.

"Lots of other promises broken. Childcare, promised in '93, '97, 2000. We're barely getting around to it now thanks to a minority Parliament, we're finally making some movement. Pharmacare promised, election after election. I guess the first place, Mr. Martin, I would suggest you apply your new-found belief in the keeping of promises is to yourself."

"The voters have a chance to send a message - don't vote for a party that breaks its promises. Send some New Democrats to make sure they're kept," Layton concluded.

The Broadbent factor?

In the media room in Vancouver there was general acknowledgement of Layton's success in highlighting Martin's failures but most media reporting the following day failed to report it, focusing instead on the national unity and same-sex marriage exchanges.

Layton also rather strangely evoked the name of former NDP leader and now-retiring MP Ed Broadbent not once, not twice but five separate times, causing a roar to go up with the media at each successive mention after it was first noticed.

Layton also spoke of his "newest" star candidate, former Manitoba NDP Premier Ed Schreyer, who will go into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first former Governor-General in Commonwealth history to go back into politics.

Layton's referring to Schreyer was odd, or perhaps an inoculation move, because the last time the former premier made any news it was for controversial comments about homosexuality being an "affliction" that put him more in the camp of Conservative Party dinosaurs than the NDP. Schreyer today says he hasn't made up his mind about same-sex marriage but thought it was already "dealt with".

Stephen Harper's bad night actually started with the same-sex marriage issue, which was the first viewer question of the evening and also set up another strong knock on Harper by Paul Martin.

Harper defended his position to hold a "free vote" on the definition of marriage, claiming he would not use the notwithstanding clause to over-ride the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to end same-sex marriage. Harper weakly said that if the free vote succeeded the Conservatives would generously recognize existing same-sex marriages.

Martin again saw an opening to slam Harper. "It's the responsibility of the prime minister to defend the Charter of Rights, and if you can't defend the Charter of Rights, they be then you've got to ask why you want to be prime minister, and I will defend the Charter of Rights and not bring forward new legislation," he said.

But Harper had a telling rejoinder: "But the real contradiction here is the question Mr. Martin has to answer. If he believes it's a charter issue, why are there dozens of Liberal candidates running in this election who actually support the Conservatives position on the issue?"

And Layton urged both Martin and Harper to ensure same-sex marriage is not brought up again: "I wish the prime minister would make a commitment that his party or members of his party who might be elected because many of them voted against this right in the last Parliament will not bring this forward, and I would urge Mr. Harper to do the same. It doesn't make sense to reopen these questions and start to take steps backwards. It would be so unfair."

'Ottawa knows best'

For his part, Duceppe had little to gain from an English debate after being judged the overwhelming winner in the French debate Thursday evening but he still put in a decent performance except for setting the table for Martin's key attack on him.

Duceppe had several good one liners, such as on Western alienation: "The West wants in and Quebec wants out."

On same-sex marriage, he said: "The religion of some should not constitute the law for everyone."

And he humorously described the federal government's role with the provinces by referring to the old television program "Father Knows Best", saying federal-provincial relations was like "Ottawa Knows Best".

Overall, the debate was not really a debate but a series of statements from the leaders in response to questions. There was no back and forth like in 2004 but also no cacophony of noise as each leader then tried to out shout the other.

But despite the format, Martin found a way to make his telling pre-planned clip look like he had bested Giles Duceppe and that will be the lasting memory of a mostly lacklustre debate.

Bill Tieleman's column in 24 hours daily newspaper runs every Tuesday or read it online here. Tieleman is president of West Star Communications. Email him: weststar at telus.net  [Tyee]

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