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2) What surprised you the most?

Duceppe quoting Art Carney, a couple of times, on big corporations not re-investing their profits. Some voters will remember Art Carney as Jackie Gleason’s slapstick sidekick on The Honeymooners, from the 1950s. More will remember the non-investment point being made by Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of Canada. Trudeau eventually corrected him, not long before he himself referred to Duceppe as “mon amour” when he obviously meant to say “mon ami.” Duceppe’s evident consternation was the funniest moment of the debate.

The leaders are obviously getting tired, which may be a good place to mention that voters who made an effort to tune in or sign on have been well served by the five debates. August’s Maclean’s debate, Monday’s Munk debate and this TVA debate were run in a relatively civilized manner with pointed questioning by individual moderators who generally maintained control of the discussion. It’s easy to dismiss the content as the superficial recitation of talking points. But in so many hours of debate there were lots and lots of talking points and any viewer who persevered now has a very clear idea of the differences among the parties and leaders.

3) What disappointed you the most?

The questions, which were pointed but often inane. For example, asking Harper in what sectors his promised 1.3 million jobs over the next four years would come. Market economies don’t work that way. It’s reasonable for Harper to say that if we get a given growth rate over the next four years, so many jobs will follow. Asking him to enumerate where the jobs will come is the kind of thing you would have asked of a Soviet labour minister, who could have answered with precision since he would be the one doing the hiring. In a free-market economy, that’s not how things work.