The Great Debate

10:27AM

Just woke up after attending a number of debate parties last night in Toronto. My favourite was the Joe Volpe party, who had a juggling clown for all the kids who showed up. I have never seen so many kids with checkbooks...

The Ken Dryden party was a real doozy, Dryden lit the rooom up with a speech about connectedness, and disconnectedness, and connecting the disconnectedness. He then moved in to a stirring analysis of the insecurity and desperation of the average voter.

The debate itself was surprisingly entertaining. After the exciting beginning of a bikini-clad protestor casually flaunting her income trusts and a not so bikini-clad older man with the world's smallest megaphone, things settled down. Kindof.

1st Prize in the non-contender category: Martha Hall Findlay, who showed moxie, style, poise and the ability to go toe to toe with Rae and Iggy on foreign policy. Mark the mole's words, this candidate is one to watch over the next couple of years.

1st Prize in the contender category: Stephane Dion, who showed a ton of fire in his second language, and hit the ball out of the park three times in the debate: First with his 'monopoly money' description of Rae's fiscal history; secondly, his 'I don't need a leadership race to become a Liberal' shot at Rae and Iggy; and finally, his 'I have never had to apologize for a comment I have made' shot at Iggy's recent gaffe's.

Rae handled himself well, was poised and statesmanlike. Kennedy was an enigma during this one, he clearly has the auro of a leader, but for the life of me I cannot remember what he said. Iggy was on the defensive, but his best moment was during his concluding remarks when he showed some real passion.

With 7 weeks to go this one is going to be fierce. It basically comes down to the dynamics between Rae, Dion and Kennedy campaigns.
If they can work together one of them will have a shot. If not, Iggy will slowly increase his numbers until people start to hop on the bandwagon.

But as the mole has been saying to friends for a while, if I had to put money on one candidate at this point it would be Dion. Iggy is faltering as a result of his foreign policy gaffe's, Rae Days continue to haunt Ontarians, and Kennedy needs more seasoning.

FYI - the mole is unaligned and proud of it.