Instead of watching the leaders debate in french on CBC tonight, I came out to my local riding (Willowdale) debate. Who we elect as our representatives in parliament does matter and I think people should get to know their own riding candidates before making up their mind. The debate took place at the elementary school that I first attended when I immigrated to Canada, so it had a special significance for me to be there again, everything looked much smaller then I remembered.

For the most part, they could all recite the talking points of their party platform pretty well. Considering Martha Hall Findlay’s experience from the leadership race and national exposure, she had a noticeable difference in confidence and flow. For a while it looked a bit like the American show Pros VS Joes, except that she was the only pro invited. As it can be expected, there were many gaffes from the new candidates. The Conservative candidate, Jake Karns, could not recite the latest environmental platform made by Harper and instead told the room full of senior citizens to visit his website. Lou Carcasole, Green party candidate, just came back from Italy and had repeatedly said he was on a different time zone and it showed, he even said he wasn’t “up to date” on the financial crisis.  Susan Wallace, NDP candidate, had fewer stumbles until she lost her thought on one question and said that she would pass the microphone on to Martha, explaining that she would probably address that question better. Apart from the gaffes, it was an intelligent and civil debate. Overall, each candidate did well but not enough to give Martha any real trouble. I think Willowdale will continue to be a safe liberal seat as it has been since 1988. Those are my quick thoughts tonight. Since it was the first riding debate so far, I’ll attend another one next week to have a second look before I make up my mind. Oh and here are some pictures:

Liberal: Martha Hall Findlay          Greens: Lou Carcasole

Conservative: Jake Karns                NDP: Susan Wallace