Article content continued

And yes, obviously, you can use a PVR — if you own one, of course — to tape the debate and indeed probably watch the whole thing later.

But if you don’t watch live, you’re not going to be getting the same insight and commentary from pundits and news organizations via social media, and indeed, the various panels of spin doctors and journalists who will dissemble the debate afterwards. There is some value to this, surely.

And that doesn’t even account for the other organizational mess that’s been made here, namely, that four of the five moderators work in Ontario.

It’s hard to escape the sense that this is a raw deal for everyone west of Thunder Bay

It is by no means an impeachment of their professional credentials to ask whether or not the experience of living outside of Ontario might inform their lines of inquiry. As but one example, one of the sections of debate will be titled “affordability,” which, while certainly a fair issue, is a very, very different thing in Toronto or Vancouver than it is in Saskatoon.

And that may or may not even include questions about the economy, which surely are the issues about which voters are most concerned in Alberta, but also in the Maritimes.

All of which is to say, these are perhaps good problems for a nation to have: when the biggest issue on a leadership debate night is the time zone, things sure are going well.

But taken in sum, it’s hard to escape the sense that this is a raw deal for everyone west of Thunder Bay, who are going to have a harder time making a ballot box choice, unless they put in some serious effort to play catch-up in the coming days.

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson