I thought it was a clear Tory win. He looked strong and decisive and clearly put McGuinty on the defensive. I thought hampton did well and made his points well. McGuinty didn’t look comfortable. Clearly as Premier he was going to be under attack but he looked down, away from the other candidates, he was uncomfortable and it showed. He tried to blame everything on previous governments and kept repeating there was work to be done – no kidding – he had four years – time for Tory.

Two things, I really thought it was a draw and nobody was watching anyways, given the insane 6:30 start.

I think Tory was the clear winner. He seemed calm and relaxed. Dalton McGuinty seemed to be having a problem defending his record, blaming everything on everyone else. He even reached back to the Rae government 12 or 13 years ago to try to explain actions/inactions of his government. I kept wanting to ask, at which point does your government start being responsible; this year, next? I think Hampton had a great point about priorities when he pointed out Mr McGuinty had time to get a huge salary raise for MPP through but didn’t have time to address the clawback on low income people. I also found it funny that McGuinty kept nodding through this part as if he was agreeing with Hampton. A good night for Tory and Hampton – McGuinty better find some better lines to defend his record cus that is what is on the line for the election. I know the NDP government had its problems and the Harris government had theirs but we already voted on that (and we all know the results). Now it is time to vote on the McGuinty record.

McGuinty was shifty and weaselly. He bobbed and waved effectively enough to avoid a knockout, but both Hampton and Tory managed to bruise him a bit.I scored it thus: McGuinty C, Hampton B-, Tory B-. I really don’t see this as having any effect on the outcome of the election.

The leaders debate was a non-event, unlikely to make much impact on this fixed date election, which itself hasn’t made much impact on people. Expect little movement in the polls, a low turnout and a minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power- a satisfactory result for most. Not too many people, except the partisan, really care if it is McGuinty back or Tory in as Premier.

the debate is not big because people watch it – they dont. it’s not big even because reporters watch it. it’s big because the reporters talk about it.

I thought it was a basically draw between Tory and McGuinty with Hampton a weak third. I doubt if many votes will change as a result of this debate. If they do, however, I think Hampton’s poor showing may open the NDP to being passed by the Greens in the popular vote.

I agree with Gord, it was a draw between McGuinty and Tory since they equally did a poor job, and Hampton was a train wreck. Every question asked to Hampton resulted in long pauses. I really hope the Green Party passes the NDP in popular vote, then their won’t be any reason from excluding them from future debates.

The Green party is polling quite high right now but that is probably mostly parked votes. Come election day a lot of Green sympathizers will choose not to throw their vote away after all.
As fot the debate- it was the most meaningless one I can remember. McGuinty did the best I thought, but they were all weak, it was a boring debate, and at 6:30, nobody was watching. It was also too early in the campaign. It should have been held about 10 days prior to E-Day. Any attempt to discuss the debate, or the election, at least in my workplace, is so far met by blank stares.

boring?
I’ve watched many debates. Most of which I turn off long before it’s done due to it being boring. I watched this one end to end.

Hampton was throw off by Steve’s question about the economy and the former NDP government; he wasn’t really able to answer that one.

The question made no sense… was he trying to intimate that the NDP has “mishandled” the North American recession of 1990-1991?

I think McGuinty scraped by… barely, but compared to either Hampton or Tory, he was the least spontaneous, and seemed ill-prepared as he constantly referred to his notes. While his initial description of his sheer agony in breaking a promise which was obviously untenable in the first place was reasonably convincing, his attempt to use this repeatedly as a mark of “good character” or leadership wore thin.

It was fair game for Steve Paikin to have gone after the NDP’s record from ‘90-’95. No question that they walked right into a recession but within that they screwed up. The first Floyd Laughren budget was disastrous as the NDP tried to prime the pump and ran the first 11-digit deficit at over $10 billion.

Bob Rae winces when asked about that budget and was apologetic about it long before he became a Liberal.

The NDP always try to claim some moral high ground but their one performance in office was a dismal failure. They took a bad situation, sure, but they made the very worst of it.