But my impression so far is that LIzzy May is bat shit crazy.
Comments open for your reactions…
163 Replies to “I Only Just Tuned In To The French Language Debate”
all I can say is that you did not need to know one single word of French to see what was going on
An interesting comment considering what happened to me last night. I live just west of Philadelphia; I was able to pick up 2 Canadian radio stations last night – one from Windsor and one (presumably from Montreal) carrying the debate in French on the car radio. My French is poor because I have not used it since high school but it was adequate enough to know what some of the topics were and sufficient to evaluate the French-speaking skills of Harper, Layton, and May but not strong enough to really follow the conversation.
In spite of my lack of skill with the French language, I listened to the debate for over one hour before I got home and finished it over the internet. My thoughts have been stated above by others. I will only add the following. I expect that no significant change will take place in the polling as a result of this debate. The reason is that the few voters who have not already made up their minds need either a reason to vote for someone or a reason to vote against someone. Harper certainly did not give any fair minded undecided person a reason to vote against him (even if he did not give the same person a reason to vote for him). As I mentioned, I was not able to follow much of the debate, but Duceppe and Dion seemed to give an undecided voter a small reason to not cast a vote in their favour due to the annoying interruption and lack of respect to Harper. In any leaders’ debate some undecideds will be persuaded towards this one or that one. Even in the event that some were persuaded to go with Duceppe or Dion, I think the effect will be offset by those turned off by the one-sided impoliteness of the debate format.
Media sources have reported that Quebec voters are more inclined to be influenced negatively by the arts funding cutbacks and that this will cause a shift to the BQ soon to be reflected in the polls. That may be but any change will not be because of the debate.
Gottal love the IPSOS Reid poll that says Dion was the winner (yeah,he gained 100 votes, whew!).
I noticed on G&M, comments mostly favourable for Harper until about 1:00 AM Eastern. Then a deluge of anti-Harper pro-Dion. I guess some people don’t have day jobs. These were probably the same bunch IPSOS called.
IOW who cares. WRT polls, let’s not forget what happened in Alberta, where Stelmach was supposed to lose or be reduced to minority; instead he creamed the Libs and NDP.
It’s clear Harper decided to keep his powder dry last night. He knew he and Duceppe were the only players in this debate, that Tory support in PQ has only dropped in Montreal area where he is not really in contention anyway. All he needs is about 20 seats there to secure majority.
Jack Layton (OK I’m harping on him) is the big loser. Until he wakes up and realized only 8 people in Canada switch from Dipper to Tory, and goes after Dion for Opposition job, he’ll be lucky to get more seats this time, and will be very vulnerable to Grit counterattack. (hint: Mr Dion you didn’t get it done, you abstained over 40 times, we need a proper opposition to keep Mr Harper in line).
Instead, Layton attacks Alberta, which IMO, will hurt him in west, particularly BC. It was a cynical move on his part.
Harper already has Dion’s right flank vote, but Layton, once again, has failed to attack left Liberal vote.
My sense is, despite MSM meandering, Canadians will see 4:1 for what it is, plus Harper will dominate the floor as everybody attacks him.
I can’t believe Layton will leave Dion alone tonight, he has a real chance to supplant Grits as second party. But this guy just doesn’t get it.
Result: after full court press in Quebec and BC, with some emphasis on Atlantic Canada, following debates, Tories will move into majority territory, assuming they’re not there already.
Tory attack dogs will go after Dion and his 30 day plan (yeah, to have meetings with, gasp, economists), and show he has no solution and is still trying to figure out what to do. He sounds more like a panicking day trader than an politician vying for the PM office.
Of course, CBC has already declared Mr Dion winner of the english debate.
Actually, Jay, the only way I can “block” that specific poster is by manually searching for their posts and deleting them, which come in under different names and ip addresses. Furthermore, I seldom read all the comments here – it’s impossible. There isn’t enough time in the day to do that, catch the emails, and create new content.
This blog, while supported by many generous readers, does not pay me for the time I commit to maintaining it. So, when I see on one hand, people complaining that they don’t like certain commentors and wanting them “banned” (which can only be done through adding keywords to the spam filter), then on the other, complaining that their own comments have been captured and I haven’t been quick enough for their taste in releasing them, I get a bit annoyed.
I understand that the average reader has no concept of what is necessary behind the scenes to keep this place under semi-control. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to push back when there are demands for me to improve my performance to suit individual tastes.
With respect, Kate, for all you do–and I’d agree that we don’t know just how much work it takes to keep SDA up and running–I don’t believe there were any “demands” made of you on this thread: some frustration, yes.
Your explanation of the problem with a certain poster, who you said uses different IP addresses is helpful: it’s obviously not a simple matter to deal with this person. (It seems that Spam filters wouldn’t work anyway, when the spelling’s so erratic.)
If there’s a thread for tonight’s debate and I post, I’ll use Word to store it and avoid terms like “st*nk” (as in “the format does”), which I think may have resulted in the filter catching my remarks.
This thread has been very enlightening and I appreciate it. Thanks.
I call it “Jungle Politics with a nattering Chipmunk”
We all know that Elizabeth May is the nattering Chipmunk and the rest of the left are monkeys.
Late in on this conversation but and I haven’t been able to read all the comments so I’m not sure if this has been discussed:
Was that a ‘debate’ last night?The format was terrible and would argue that there were 5 hostile people plus Stephen Harper. I could only listen to about 20 minutes and in that short time the so-called moderater interrupted PMSH many times, yet I did not notice him cutting anyone else off.I understood a debate was a very controlled format, timed, very specific as to who would be challenged , and a balance of time to challenge and time to respond. That was not evident in the segment I watched.
Hopefully there is a more organized format with a less biased moderater tonight.
Kate,
Sorry to waste your time. Seriously. Love the blog, love the collection of regulars (mostly)and know that it detracts from your livelihood because of time and money.
I am probably the same as many who already filter out mos/new by scrolling past without reading. Once ya see that mangled english keep on scrolling.
Keep doing what you are doing. A bit of well needed sanity in Canada is what you provide.
I posted at 12:50 a.m. about seeing Lapierre on cbc giving his views on the debate. I was wrong.I saw it on CTV. I hope all the unbiased folks(R.Murphy) at cbc will forgive me….Kate,there is a reason that this is the #1 blog in Canada,and that is you,keep up the great work.
Mental illness is found in all camps of the political ideology spectrum.
We get them at our blog too. Since we don’t have the volume of traffic SDA gets, it’s much easier and simple to catch nuisance posts that add nothing to a discussion.
Yes, Elizabeth is batshit crazy.
like DUH! It’s a shame that she’s the sane one of the bunch, excepting PMSH.
I noticed that neither May or Layton managed to comb their hair for the big event. Whassupwitdat?
Soon my conservative friends, the left will unite and they will round you all up and put all of your bad ideas to work, in the mines.
The angry left is in fact very angry, and who will they punish first??? Conservatives.
To be left is not always sunshine and lollipops they have a plan for you.
Whom will the left punish first (sic)? Those this entiltled group always has:
Via its “slow march through the institutions” (Barbara Kay), the left has been punishing those of us on–an in!–the right for decades.
all I can say is that you did not need to know one single word of French to see what was going on
An interesting comment considering what happened to me last night. I live just west of Philadelphia; I was able to pick up 2 Canadian radio stations last night – one from Windsor and one (presumably from Montreal) carrying the debate in French on the car radio. My French is poor because I have not used it since high school but it was adequate enough to know what some of the topics were and sufficient to evaluate the French-speaking skills of Harper, Layton, and May but not strong enough to really follow the conversation.
In spite of my lack of skill with the French language, I listened to the debate for over one hour before I got home and finished it over the internet. My thoughts have been stated above by others. I will only add the following. I expect that no significant change will take place in the polling as a result of this debate. The reason is that the few voters who have not already made up their minds need either a reason to vote for someone or a reason to vote against someone. Harper certainly did not give any fair minded undecided person a reason to vote against him (even if he did not give the same person a reason to vote for him). As I mentioned, I was not able to follow much of the debate, but Duceppe and Dion seemed to give an undecided voter a small reason to not cast a vote in their favour due to the annoying interruption and lack of respect to Harper. In any leaders’ debate some undecideds will be persuaded towards this one or that one. Even in the event that some were persuaded to go with Duceppe or Dion, I think the effect will be offset by those turned off by the one-sided impoliteness of the debate format.
Media sources have reported that Quebec voters are more inclined to be influenced negatively by the arts funding cutbacks and that this will cause a shift to the BQ soon to be reflected in the polls. That may be but any change will not be because of the debate.
Gottal love the IPSOS Reid poll that says Dion was the winner (yeah,he gained 100 votes, whew!).
I noticed on G&M, comments mostly favourable for Harper until about 1:00 AM Eastern. Then a deluge of anti-Harper pro-Dion. I guess some people don’t have day jobs. These were probably the same bunch IPSOS called.
IOW who cares. WRT polls, let’s not forget what happened in Alberta, where Stelmach was supposed to lose or be reduced to minority; instead he creamed the Libs and NDP.
It’s clear Harper decided to keep his powder dry last night. He knew he and Duceppe were the only players in this debate, that Tory support in PQ has only dropped in Montreal area where he is not really in contention anyway. All he needs is about 20 seats there to secure majority.
Jack Layton (OK I’m harping on him) is the big loser. Until he wakes up and realized only 8 people in Canada switch from Dipper to Tory, and goes after Dion for Opposition job, he’ll be lucky to get more seats this time, and will be very vulnerable to Grit counterattack. (hint: Mr Dion you didn’t get it done, you abstained over 40 times, we need a proper opposition to keep Mr Harper in line).
Instead, Layton attacks Alberta, which IMO, will hurt him in west, particularly BC. It was a cynical move on his part.
Harper already has Dion’s right flank vote, but Layton, once again, has failed to attack left Liberal vote.
My sense is, despite MSM meandering, Canadians will see 4:1 for what it is, plus Harper will dominate the floor as everybody attacks him.
I can’t believe Layton will leave Dion alone tonight, he has a real chance to supplant Grits as second party. But this guy just doesn’t get it.
Result: after full court press in Quebec and BC, with some emphasis on Atlantic Canada, following debates, Tories will move into majority territory, assuming they’re not there already.
Tory attack dogs will go after Dion and his 30 day plan (yeah, to have meetings with, gasp, economists), and show he has no solution and is still trying to figure out what to do. He sounds more like a panicking day trader than an politician vying for the PM office.
Of course, CBC has already declared Mr Dion winner of the english debate.
Actually, Jay, the only way I can “block” that specific poster is by manually searching for their posts and deleting them, which come in under different names and ip addresses. Furthermore, I seldom read all the comments here – it’s impossible. There isn’t enough time in the day to do that, catch the emails, and create new content.
This blog, while supported by many generous readers, does not pay me for the time I commit to maintaining it. So, when I see on one hand, people complaining that they don’t like certain commentors and wanting them “banned” (which can only be done through adding keywords to the spam filter), then on the other, complaining that their own comments have been captured and I haven’t been quick enough for their taste in releasing them, I get a bit annoyed.
I understand that the average reader has no concept of what is necessary behind the scenes to keep this place under semi-control. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to push back when there are demands for me to improve my performance to suit individual tastes.
With respect, Kate, for all you do–and I’d agree that we don’t know just how much work it takes to keep SDA up and running–I don’t believe there were any “demands” made of you on this thread: some frustration, yes.
Your explanation of the problem with a certain poster, who you said uses different IP addresses is helpful: it’s obviously not a simple matter to deal with this person. (It seems that Spam filters wouldn’t work anyway, when the spelling’s so erratic.)
If there’s a thread for tonight’s debate and I post, I’ll use Word to store it and avoid terms like “st*nk” (as in “the format does”), which I think may have resulted in the filter catching my remarks.
This thread has been very enlightening and I appreciate it. Thanks.
I call it “Jungle Politics with a nattering Chipmunk”
We all know that Elizabeth May is the nattering Chipmunk and the rest of the left are monkeys.
Late in on this conversation but and I haven’t been able to read all the comments so I’m not sure if this has been discussed:
Was that a ‘debate’ last night?The format was terrible and would argue that there were 5 hostile people plus Stephen Harper. I could only listen to about 20 minutes and in that short time the so-called moderater interrupted PMSH many times, yet I did not notice him cutting anyone else off.I understood a debate was a very controlled format, timed, very specific as to who would be challenged , and a balance of time to challenge and time to respond. That was not evident in the segment I watched.
Hopefully there is a more organized format with a less biased moderater tonight.
Kate,
Sorry to waste your time. Seriously. Love the blog, love the collection of regulars (mostly)and know that it detracts from your livelihood because of time and money.
I am probably the same as many who already filter out mos/new by scrolling past without reading. Once ya see that mangled english keep on scrolling.
Keep doing what you are doing. A bit of well needed sanity in Canada is what you provide.
I posted at 12:50 a.m. about seeing Lapierre on cbc giving his views on the debate. I was wrong.I saw it on CTV. I hope all the unbiased folks(R.Murphy) at cbc will forgive me….Kate,there is a reason that this is the #1 blog in Canada,and that is you,keep up the great work.
Mental illness is found in all camps of the political ideology spectrum.
We get them at our blog too. Since we don’t have the volume of traffic SDA gets, it’s much easier and simple to catch nuisance posts that add nothing to a discussion.
Yes, Elizabeth is batshit crazy.
like DUH! It’s a shame that she’s the sane one of the bunch, excepting PMSH.
I noticed that neither May or Layton managed to comb their hair for the big event. Whassupwitdat?
Soon my conservative friends, the left will unite and they will round you all up and put all of your bad ideas to work, in the mines.
The angry left is in fact very angry, and who will they punish first??? Conservatives.
To be left is not always sunshine and lollipops they have a plan for you.
Whom will the left punish first (sic)? Those this entiltled group always has:
Via its “slow march through the institutions” (Barbara Kay), the left has been punishing those of us on–an in!–the right for decades.