Canadian Party Politics: Liberal Party Leadership Debate – Quiet Opening or Blown Opportunity?

Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

Was the first debate a warm-up match, or was it a blown opportunity for the Liberal Party to caste itself as the best alternative to Prime Minister Harper?

The 9-person debate, the first public debate among Liberal leadership contenders, seems to be getting more news owing to its format than the substance. 

(Note:  To learn more about the candidates vying for lead of the Liberals, check out the party's helpful website devoted to the 2013 race here.)

iPolitics's Joan Bryden offers a solid recap and analysis of the first liberal debate.  (For the best overview of the topics discussed at the debate, I would recommend Susana Mas's CBC report.)

Bryden's conclusion:  the candidates have little reason to punch hard at this point, and this is more of a waiting game to see who drops out first. 

From Joan Bryden at iPolitics:

Anyone hoping to make a come-from-behind win will have to gain support from rival candidates as they drop off the ballot. As a result, none of the dark horses is likely to say anything during the debate to alienate supporters of their fellow long-shots.

…

Even so, Trudeau’s challengers are likely to show restraint, conscious that many Liberals would never forgive a candidate who launched a no-holds-barred assault on the probable winner, thereby handing the Conservatives devastating fodder for their next wave of attack ads.

Liberals haven’t forgotten that the Tories used footage from the 2006 Liberal leadership debates to skewer the winner of that contest, Stephane Dion.

Andy Radia, for Yahoo News, gives a fair less charitable view on the debate:

Unlike the NFC final, the Liberal debate was a ho-hum affair; it had too many candidates and not enough new ideas.

In many ways, it was an opportunity lost for a party desperately seeking to rebuild its brand. For one of the few times since 2011, the Liberals were the centre of the 'Canadian-poli' world. In fact, at one point during the afternoon, #LPCdb8 was the number one trending Twitter hashtag in all of Canada.

But they blew it. 

I wouldn’t go that far. Why? With so much time between now and the next parliamentary election, the leadership debate will probably not include ground-shaking policies or words. Why waste your firepower?

Instead, a nine-person debate series that slowly eeks out a leader mainly serves to test how Trudeau handles the public pressure. And if he blows it, a chance for an alternative candidate.

To expect more—given the current state of the Liberal Party—from the race in terms of both substance and impact seems more a pundit’s dream than smart party move.