Duckin', Jivin' and a Dancin' Steve Paikin

Well, the English language debate is now officially over, and the post-op surgery is being performed by the talking heads - yes, and folks like us.

Watch it in full here.

In general, the first three quarters were particularly interesting. Good ol' Gilles got it off to a perfect start when he said, after Harper was first to address a question posed by an average-joe Canadian, "I'd like to congratulate Mr. Harper for answering a question from a citizen for the first time during this campaign." Ah, Gilles - wonderful!

There were no major hits, although the pressure on Harper was strong enough; Ignatieff slamming him for his undemocratic behaviour, including the use of the stacked Senate to cancel a bill passed by the House of Commons. In other words, and for some who might be less-than-passionate about this kind of stuff, that means that a piece of legislation that was voted on twice by the elected members of our government was quashed by people - some of whom are now under fraud charges - who were PUT there by Prime Minister Harper. You don't get much less democratic than that kind of heist of the system.

Iggy got it too, however - and most of us at the office weren't aware, as Jack Layton so gleefully pointed out, that he had missed 70% of the votes in the HoC. Pretty sad record, that.

All in all it was an enjoyable hour and a half followed by a no-hit quarter of the kind of stuff you might see during Question Period, should you ever watch it, not debate-level ducks and jabbin's.

The only other thing that surprised us at the IO; not once did Harper mention the dreaded 'C' word - - 'coalition'. Duceppe brought it up when he discussed the hotel-room-born, written and signed 'alternative' to the dissolution of Parliament that Harper, Layton and Duceppe threw together should Martin's government fall.

Democracy was discussed, Ignatieff brought up the contempt issue, the G20 expenditure, (not the blatant disregard of the Charter - you can only wish so much), Jack looked blissful and held his ground well, especially with his barb against Ignatieff regarding attendance at the HoC.

So if you missed it, you didn't really miss much. There were a few great scenes, there are a few good lines you'll see in newspapers and on television over the next couple of days - but for the most part, it was more of the same. Some dirt thrown, accusations made, lies spun and hits taken. Steve Paikin, as he did two years ago, managed a complex dance between allowing a few seconds longer to finish a point, and moving the debate forcefully back to the schedule and keeping time for each speaker. Way to go, sir - once again you balanced the high-flow verbage like a four-armed waiter. A simile that sounded way cooler in editorial discussion than it looks in text.

Now it's a wait and see what the media does with it, and most importantly, what you do with it. Go watch it now - once again, the full debate is here. We'll understand should you shut it down after the first hour - but watch some of it. This, unlike so many other things that fill our daily lives, is of great importance.

Read, Watch, Learn. VOTE!