Can’t we all just get along?

Lots of live blogging of tonight’s English-language debate. I’m going to link to Antonia Zerbisias’s since it’s the only one I’ve read since watching the debate. (Despite being a geek—or perhaps because of it—I watched the debate slightly time-shifted and without attempting to multitask.)

I’ve got several things to add to the various comments that have been made, but one stands out. To my surprise I agreed most with Gilles Duceppe’s comments during the discussion of civility: I believe that any responsible government, be it a majority or a minority, owes it to voters to work with all of their representatives, not just those in the same party; similarly, the parties that don’t form the government need to work with the party that does. To that end, it was very interesting to note that only once (perhaps twice, I’ll need to check) did any leader admit to agreeing with another, and that was Stephen Harper’s unfortunate agreement with Paul Martin that Canada’s strength is its people. Perhaps I’m just naive, but I wanted to see more acknowledgement of their similarities on issues than the leaders were willing to concede.

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