Au Canada, On Parle Anglais *Et* Francais!

[ed_rex]

What with work and the commute turning me upside down, I haven't had the time to properly ponder last night's French-language debate, but for the record, here are some of my impressions.

I thought Dion won (whatever the hell that term means in this context). He struck me as passionate but calm, and as someone who very much knew what he was talking about. (The 8:00 PM CBC Radio newscast suggested a quick poll of Quebecers agreed with me.)

Harper struck me as little more than smug (but note that I despise the man nearly as much as I loathe his policies), occasionally defensive but always convinced not so much that he was right, but that he was better than those he was debating.

Layton impressed me more than I thought he would (and I speak as someone who has almost always — though more often than not, with nose plugged — voted for the NDP). His French was very good and he too seemed to know what he was talking about, though his robot-like insistence on bringing every question around to "families" and ordinary people also makes me cringe as sounding contemptuous.

May impressed me largely because I had heard that her French was really, really questionable, and it was clear she understood what was going on around her; when she stumbled, you knew it was because she was having problems with vocabulary, not because she was retreating to sound-bites because she had nothing else to say.

And Duceppe? Well hell, he's the eminence grise of these debates. He tore into Harper with a will and I suspect he did a lot of good for the (temporary) future of the Bloc.

Comments

[sooguy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much sums up my thoughts as well on the debates last night.

I watched most of it on TV with "English" dubbed translators.

It was odd, the translator dubbing for the moderator had an Australian accent and the translator dubbing for one of the other leaders had a slight Scottish (or maybe it was Irish) accent. Seemed odd considering the debate was in French that they had English accents even when dubbed.

I think it will be interesting to see how defensive Harper is tonight.

Elizabeth May is ripping into Harper on the economy right now as I type this.

[pbprincess.livejournal.com]

I listened to the English debate last night and was impressed with Dion: so often I was surprised it was a liberal talking and kept asking Leo if it was Duceppe. Also, May clearly had the information at her fingertips. I'm definitely voting Green, but it's interesting that the leaders debate only reinforced the impressions I got of the local candidates when they spoke at our school.

The Conservative Candidate was a no-show.

Olivia Chow totally talked down to the kids and didn't answer questions.

Christine Innes was smart, professional, but a little boring and tended to take too long to get to the point.

Stephen LaFrenie wore old cargos and a tshirt, but was able to speak at the right level for the kids, had the facts to hand and was clearly passionate about the issues. He also walks the walk: he makes about 10,000 a year and spends a lot of his time working with Haitian relief organizations.

I just can't stomach voting for Chow.

my French is lousy and I hate listening to translators

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

I tried to watch some of the debate on CPAC, was reminded of how awful my French comprehension is, it was fun to see Dion talking confidently and fluently, though. I then tried to watch with translation on. Translators bug me.