Canadian party leaders debate or US VP debate?

[tuvor]

Duelling TV debates pose quandary for political junkies Thursday

TORONTO — When it comes to attracting voter attention, don't underestimate the cringe factor.

The prospect of a spectacular crash-and-burn by U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in Thursday's televised debate is too good to resist for many Canadians, even though their own leaders will be vying for votes in a debate the same night, say observers.

The scheduling of Canada's English-language leadership debate had political junkie Denis McGrath ranting over the "boneheaded" decision to pit it against the U.S. vice-presidential debate. Despite his ardent interest in Canadian politics, he declared would not be watching the Canadian tussle.

"There's no way in hell I'm watching that thing," said the Toronto-based McGrath, an American screenwriter with dual citizenship.

...

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2Cdik83J90Zg1wv4YoKKu9_uVug

Me, I'll be watching Biden/Palin. How about the rest of you?

[HeresyLives]

1. If Canadians can't be bothered

paying attention to their own election, they have no business complaining about the mess the country is in.

If you wish to see both, surely you have a VCR, or TiVO, PVR or something.

[tuvor]

3. I thought it was apparent that I meant watching it live.

[HeresyLives]

4. As long as you watch it

does it matter how?

[Lucy Goosey]

2. The veeps, mostly, BUT I'm watching the Canadian leaders in French.

Thanks to my French immersion education, I can watch our politicians flail and lie in both official languages. I will be switching channels back and forth, though - I'm expecting I'll have to switch away from Palin when the cringe factor gets too high.

I love watching Harper squirm, when everyone else understands what's going on much better than he does.

[daleo]

5. Let us know what you think of the French debate

It would be interesting to get a report free from media spin.

[LiberadorHugo]

6. Me too...

I'm fluent in French and I'm already a decided voter (Hint: I don't support the same party as Michael Moore or the same party as George W. Bush), so I don't give a damn about missing tomorrow's English debate; I'll just watch it tonight. I hope May embarrasses the fuck out of herself in French so that the Francophone anti-Tory vote all goes NDP and Liberal.

[Clintonista2]

8. Sorry that your hopes have been shattered

May owned the debate.

[offog]

7. I'll be watching both debates.

But I won't be flipping back and forth. I want to catch all of both debates, so I'm taping the American debate while watching the Canadian one. Most people these days have VCRs. DVD recorders, TiVOs or whatever, so there's no reason most of us can't catch both debates.

I do agree that it was a bad move scheduling the Canadian leaders' debate at the same time as the American Vice-Presidential debate. Maybe that's what Stephen Harper wants. If Canadians aren't paying attention to Canadian politics, that makes things easier for the Tories.

[Bragi]

9. With the new format, I'm going to watch the Canadian debate

I had planned to watch the Palin-Biden debate live, while recording the Canadian leaders' debate.

However, I watched much of last night's French debate, and I really like the new round-table format, which caused actual, lively, interaction to happen. Imagine!

So now I'm looking forward to tonight's English debate.

- B

[HeresyLives]

10. Yes, that's much better.

I always thought the old lectern idea was absurd. This was a much better way to run it.