Memo to Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney: These are debates you really don’t want to enter.

You’d get crushed.

“A lot of us would kill Newt,” said Romeo Maione, a fourth-year political science student at Carleton University.

Nor would the subject up for debate make any difference in the outcome. “With great ease would I argue for a moon base,” he added.

• PHOTOS: North American Debate Championships

Maione has reason to boast. He and Carleton University teammate Simon Cameron came out on top Sunday at the North American Debating Championship held at Hart House, University of Toronto.

The competition, which started Friday, began with 64 teams from universities across Canada and the United States.

And the reason most politicians would fare poorly is that both their style of argument and their aims are so different from what was on display among the students over the weekend.

“They’re not interested in winning the argument,” said Sam Greene, a U of T student and one of the organizers. “They’re interested in sound bites that will be talking points.”

Gingrich, for instance, recently avoided queries about the serial nature of his marital infidelities by simply expressing outrage that the question would even be posed. He wouldn’t get away with that during a university debate.

“You can’t not answer the question,” said Richard Lizius, a debate judge and U of T law student. “Nobody can lie or manipulate facts.”

The rules of debate are strict in other ways, as well.

At this competition, the contestants were slowly whittled down through a long series of debates, culminating in Sunday’s final pitting Carleton (which had vanquished Yale University in the semi-finals) against McGill University (winners against Princeton University).

In each debate, there is only one resolution at play, and the weekend’s topics ranged from the abolition of the euro to immortality.

But competitors learn what the topic will be only 15 minutes before the debate begins. Each team then starts with a six-minute overview of their argument for or against a certain proposition.

The winning team from Carleton, for instance, successfully argued in favour of a mock resolution that fathers be given preference in child-custody cases.

“The debates don’t rely on specialized knowledge,” said Steven Penner, a judge and former champion debater. “It’s an exercise in logical thinking and persuasive speaking.”

But not all arguments are alike.

Among judges and veteran debaters, there’s a general consensus that different countries favour different styles of debate in such competitions. American teams tend to be very content-driven, while British and Irish squads rely more heavily on rhetoric and humour.

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Canadians, by contrast, seem to come down the middle of that divide, offering a little something for everyone. This may help explain why Canadian teams have historically done so well in debating tournaments.

Since the current rendition of the North American championship was inaugurated in 1992, Canadian teams have come out on top 12 times, versus nine for the Americans.

The University of Toronto has the most titles, with five, but as hosts didn’t field any teams this year. Yale University sits in second with four wins, followed by McGill University with two.