Undecided Cole Harbour voters got a great chance to make up their mind on the night of May 21st, when the leaders of the three main parties joined in a leader's debate on CBC Halifax. Moderated by the most pasty-faced reporter in known history, Linda Kelly, the debate can only be called an unqualified success for the CHSF. Leader John DeWolfe made Liberal boss Dennis Richards and Tory top dog John Crosbie look like the whack-ass bitches they are. In order to form your own opinion, we've enclosed a few snippets from the debate below. The debate itself was divided into four sections, so we'll look at how each turned out.
The advantage clearly went to the CHSF's DeWolfe in this first section, as he eloquently opined that "Cole Harbourian nationalism is on the rise, and if Dennis Richards doesn't like that he can suck my hairy nuts." Crosbie scored a few points for the Tories as well, bringing up the nagging allegations of Liberal-CHSF vote-rigging, but Richards clearly put that issue to bed, pointing at Crosbie and saying "This clown couldn't even get his budget passed! What kind of moron would name a Newfie to be the Minister of Finance, anyway?" Still, DeWolfe clearly won this section on points.
The next section was a 15 minute debate on economic issues, which seemed to be a three-way dead heat. Crosbie put the Tory economic program across very succinctly, saying "Poor people suck." Dennis Richards was also on, saying "Ditto, except when they're friends of cabinet ministers and they need big-ass business grants." Both leaders were then promptly given a big, non-descript sack from a corporate accountant, each presumably full of kickback money. DeWolfe was unfazed by this corruption, though, saying his government would work to reduce corporate control of the economy, and to strengthen ties with organized labour. He then received a big, non-descript sack from Buzz Hargrove.
DeWolfe looked slightly weak in this section, as both the Tory and Grit leaders pounded him repeatedly over his plans to hold a referendum on Cole Harbour separation. DeWolfe responded merely by saying that "We will hold a referendum when the conditions are there to win, except that we won't. This will happen within a year, unless it doesn't." DeWolfe then retaliated, asking Richards what he would do about a referendum if elected. The Liberal leader, for some unexplicable reason, just stood there silently for seven seconds.
The floor was then opened up to a panelist of five respected journalists... well, four respected journalists and Harry Flemming. Each was able to ask one question, to which the leaders could all respond. Nothing particularly memorable came of this until the final question, when Parker Barss-Donham asked about a series of patronage appointments that Dennis Richards had made upon becoming the Liberal Leader. He could only respond weakly "I had no option", and the CHSF's DeWolfe quickly leaped on this. He pointed at Richards, and shouted "You had an option, sir! You could have said this is wrong for Cole Harbourites, and I won't make them pay that price." DeWolfe then grinned like a maniac for some reason.
Clearly, John DeWolfe outperformed the other two leaders in this debate, and really helped add some momentum to the CHSF campaign in bellweather ridings. With a large number of voters going into the debate undecided, and only so much money to spend on paving roads in key ridings, DeWolfe needed to score a knockout blow - and I think he did. We'll find out for sure, though, when Cole Harbourites vote on June 8th.
Paul Peterson is a weekly contributor to the Cole Harbour Daily News, and has been paid a lot of money by the CHSF to write an excessively favourable review of the leader's debate.