X Marks the Spot

Another night, another debate.

This one was at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and involved Mississauga-Erindale candidates.

The crowd was rowdier than other Mississauga audiences, with shouts of "shame" regularly raining down on the candidates like meteorites.

Like most local debates, the event wasn't actually a debate. It was a Q&A with candidates. Only once did a candidate interrupt another candidate, and it was very funny.

The NDP's Shaila Kibria interrupted Liberal incumbent Harinder Takhar, and Takhar shot back, "I didn't talk over you, so just be quiet."

Enough meteorites of "shame" rained on the minister to pave a new highway between Mississauga and Vancouver.

***

Highlight of the night was the video above (some of you, I'm told, can't see it on your computers, and I have no idea how to fix that).

Rich Pietro, the Green candidate in Mississauga-Erindale, told the audience that he was bilingual, and the audience cheered, surprising Pietro, who then raised his fist in the air and loudly said, "Bilingualism!"

He then said when he moved to Mississauga from Montreal, his first job was delivering The Mississauga News. Another round of half-mocking cheers from the audience, to which Pietro again raised his fist and shouted "Mississauga News!"

So now Pietro is our favourite candidate.

***

The other highlight actually came before the debate.

I spent time wandering around the halls of UTM to gauge the level of interest the young students had in voting. There was nearly no interest, except from the students who were attending the debate, most of whom were either Young Liberals or Shaila Kibria cult members.

One guy I interviewed said he wasn't going to vote because he only goes to school in Mississauga and doesn't actually live here.

After telling him that provincial elections don't happen only in Mississauga but across the entire province, he said he might think about voting. I seriously considered pleading with him to stay home on Oct. 10.

***

Julie Tyios, the news editor at The Medium, the UTM newspaper, was part of the panel at the debate.

She asked about the electoral reform referendum (for background, see here, here, and here, and also here and here, and, finally, here, here, and here), but preceded her real question by asking, jokingly, Starbucks or Tim Hortons? It has become a divisive issue on campus, as the school, which has always had a Tim Hortons, with the obligatory 25-deep lineup, finally got its very own Starbucks.

David Brown, the PC candidate, was the only one to remember to answer the question, and it was a good, well-thought out answer, perhaps the most clear and concise answer I've heard in the past month from any of the candidates: "If tea, Starbucks; if coffee, Tim's."

***

Shaila Kibria made a huge mistake mid-debate.

Here's the thing about students. Most of them aren't involved, but if they are involved, they're REALLY involved, and most of the people in the audience at the debate were really involved. So, when Kibria tried to tell the audience that since Takhar's party has been in power the funding for the Status of Women program has been cut, the crowd went ballistic.

Anyone who regularly reads the newspaper and follows politics knows that was a federal program and the cuts were made by the Conservative government.

The crowd let her know they knew.

"It may be a federal issue..." said Kibria, trying to explain away her mistake before being drowned out.

It was embarrassing to watch.

***

In the end, PC candidate David Brown won. It's always nearly impossible for the incumbent to win, because they have a record the others can bash. Kibria bashed the record but came across as an "amateur," as one observer called her after the debate. Brown just kept his head down and spoke policy.

Card-carrying Young Liberals said, during the debate smoke break, that Brown made them think they could possibly vote PC. What made them stop short of marking off Brown's name was John Tory's name. That's unfortunate since PC candidates in this election all seem to have signed a party pledge to say John Tory's name at least 35 times per hour.