While the candidates of Skeena-Bulkley Valley make their preparations for a busy week or so of community forums, starting with Wednesday night's Prince Rupert forum at the Lester Centre, the national focus turns to the television screen starting tonight.
This evening (afternoon actually in British Columbia) brings the first of two significant debates, one in English the other en Francais on Thursday, October 10th, with the English Leaders debate fast approaching with a 4 PM starting time in this province.
A preview as to what to expect came last week with a debate hosted by the Quebec Television network TVA, which while hard to find for those of us without the full cable/satellite package did provide for some fireworks among four of the party leaders.
Last Wednesday's event featured Liberal leader Trudeau, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, all taking turns trying to knock the other off their game and to make sure their own party positioning was secure.
That debate, was somewhat controversial owing to who wasn't invited, with the Green Party's Elizabeth May and People's Party of Canada's Maxime Bernier left off the stage, relegated to hanging around Montreal to get some of the visibility for their themes.
The Montreal debate was a bit of a dry run for this week's events, hosted entirely in French that for the most part went on unknown to the Rest of Canada.
Tonight, both Ms. May and Mr. Bernier will join those of the Montreal event for the English debate from the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec just across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill.
As the clock ticks down towards start time, the Prime Minister and the Liberals would seem to have the most to lose from this evening's event, the incumbent party having entered the campaign with a fair amount of baggage to carry along, with things becoming a tad more exacerbated as the early stages of the campaign began.
The Liberals have suffered from some self inflicted woes, the Prime Minister's black and brown face incidents of the past making for some headlines; while the opposition parties have used the last four years of governance as a handy starting point to highlight a number of areas where the Liberals may be vulnerable.
Voters who may be weary of mixed messages, or cynical over some of the hypocrisy that has come from the Government side of late, may be looking to park their votes this election and that opens up an opportunity for both Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May to put out the Park Here sign.
And while neither is likely to be named Prime Minister on October 21st, both Ms. May and Mr. Signh could very well see some momentum for their messages and shift some votes at the constituency level depending on how they do this evening.
So far this campaign, none of the parties across the board, have shown much of a dedication towards the concept of balancing a chequebook, with positions, campaign promises and policy plans that leave costing forecasts to blow in the political winds.
As the last few weeks have moved forward though, the NDP have for the most part had the best time of things, there have been few in the way of the political surprises that have plagued the Liberals, Conservatives and to a lesser degree the Greens and Jagmeet Singh has had a strong attack on the Liberal record, which has been even more effective than what the Conservatives have been able to deliver to this point.
The NDP leader has led the best campaign as he found his footing over the last two weeks, working themes that are resonating with Canadians and handling some pretty brutal incidents of racism with a clam and measured approach, one which has been more educational in nature and quite effective.
His work so far in the campaign has been such that he may very well save the NDP from some of the apocalypse that was looming on the horizon prior to the dropping of the writ; perhaps saving some of those seats that could have been on the cusp of defecting to the Liberals or the Greens.
The two front runners in Trudeau and Scheer have had a few rough weeks, with their respective spin squads having to work some overtime to tackle some of the September and October surprises that have come to the front of the line these last few days.
Also finding the last few weeks a bit of a disappointment has been Green Leader Elizabeth May, despite the high profile of Climate Change with a number of community marches and other events calling attention to the issue. Despite that heavy focus, the Greens have been somewhat adrift, their message losing some oxygen that has been captured in the showing of the NDP's Singh.
Rounding out the participants for tonight are Mr. Blanchet for the Bloc Quebecois and the People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, both with some rather divisive views for the electoral agenda, both seemingly twin peas of a very similar pod as things turn out.
Tonight, everyone will try to get back on their main message and build the momentum that could translate into votes on October 21st.
The debate tonight will be carried by all the major English television networks as well as any number of streaming platforms hosted by newspapers and other organizations
The debates have been organized by the Federal Debates Commission, you can learn more about their work and where you can watch the debates here.
They have also put out a YouTube Feed, which currently is hosting the arrival of the leaders
For more items of interest on the local Skeena-Bulkley Valley campaign see our archive page here.
Our companion blog, D'Arcy McGee also has an archive that puts the focus on the national stories fo the 201i campaign, you can access that one here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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