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Canadians looking to Thursday night’s federal leaders debate in Calgary for a decisive moment to break the logjam of this federal campaign will have gone away disappointed. In nearly two hours of workmanlike exchanges, all nominally focused on the economy, there was no obvious winner. Nor was there a clear loser, though there were stumbles. It was, all-in, a tepid affair.

The evening did, however, provide a window into the now somewhat dizzying ideological concurrence of all three major federal parties, at the centre of the political spectrum, which may partly explain said logjam.

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In the six weeks since the first leaders debate, on Aug. 6, an already close race had narrowed further, and the texture of the campaign had changed appreciably.

Justin Trudeau entered Thursday’s contest, sponsored by The Globe and Mail, Google and the CPAC parliamentary channel, with two things to prove. The first was that his strong showing six weeks ago was not a fluke. The second was that he could speak with authority and in detail to sell an economic platform built partly on deficit spending, which has put him offside of his two principal opponents.