The ArcterJournal

First of all you can find far more real information about the Leaders Debate here.

Lately, funnily enough thanks to things in the states, I've become a bit more interested in politics. There's an election coming up and I have no idea who to vote for (regardless of what the Candidate-o-matic that Darren found tells me). Flicking around when I got home and the Leaders Debate was on so I figured I'd watch it. Still am watching it as I write this as an example. Sadly, as I think is more often than not the case, far more was said than I learned.

The debate was between the four leaders:

• Smiley gruff guy in a suit
• Smiley young guy in a suit
• Smiley french accented guy in a suit
• Smiley loud mustache guy in a suit

They were all loud, ignored each other, spoke out of turn, evaded, accused, deflected, and ended up saying not a huge amount at all. In fact even when Smiley french accented guy in a suit directly asked Smiley gruff guy in a suit a question about him supporting same sex marriages (I think, it might have been immigrant rights, it was hard to tell) somehow it turned into one Smiley guy accusing the other of hiding behind the Charter of Rights, or being accused of kicking puppies or something.

Most of the conversations went something like this: "blah blah blah blah blah accuse blah interrupted blah accuse blah fight fight fight blah blah blah moderated shuts all four candidates up blah".

If you're going to ask someone a question it seems that in politics letting someone answer that question is something best not to do. In fact, turning your question into a long and rambling accusation seems a far better idea. If the person to whom you are asking the question tries to answer accuse them of interrupting, ramble some more, get interrupted, and then have a big free for all with all four leaders.

Do we really want somone without the basic manners that we were taught at the time we learned to speak lead us?

Probably a better wrap up of the debate would look like:

• Smiley gruff guy in a suit spent most of the time defending the existing government and saying how they'd do it better next time
• The other three smiley guys in suits spent most of the time attacking Smiley gruff guy in a suit and saying how they'd do it better

Final words consisted 90% talking about the other parties and what they did or are promising to do (or, in the case of Smiley loud mustache guy in a suit, artfully doing this while accuing othe others of doing the same thing).

I've ignored the leaders real names simply because after seeing this they really all seem pretty much the same.