The fall out from the party leaders debates
Posted Apr 11, 2011 2:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ottawa bureau chief with the Globe & Mail says the outcome of this week’s televised party leaders debates will dictate what happens in the final weeks of the federal election campaign.
John Ibbitson tells 660News the winner of the verbal sparring will head to opposition ridings trying to steal away seats.
“After they know who has momentum, who’s changed the game, then the guy who thinks he has an edge starts going into ridings where he might take seats away from the other guys,” says Ibbitson. “The guy who thinks he had a bad night will fall back on trying to protect those ridings. If they’re an opposition riding, being feisty and aggressive and trying to take seats away, they probably got the wind in their sails. If they’ve fallen back on their home turf and they’re playing a defensive game, well you know that too.”
Despite two weeks of campaigning, political polls haven’t changed much. Ibbotson says it almost seems like Canadians know what they want.
“The polls have been very stable, actually for two years now with the Conservatives in the upper 30’s, the Liberals floating around 30, the NDP in the mid-teens,” adds the Globe & Mail’s Ottawa Bureau Chief, who feels something dramatic will have to happen in the televised debates for sentiment to shift. “It may be that voters decided the outcome of this election, long, long before this election began.”
The english debate will be held Tuesday evening. Originally scheduled for Thursday, the french debate has been moved to Wednesday evening so it’s doesn’t go head-to-head with the broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens’ opening playoff game.
