Debate Strategies

[August1991]

Harper in English: Avoid "Where is the money?" Try instead "Paul, you and I have met several times and spoken. Paul, what happened to the 250 million?"

Harper in French: "Il faut respecter les droits provinciaux." Avoid the Clark line of "Je négocie tous les jours". Try this: "Franchement, c'est assez. Veut, veut pas, le Québec et le Canada - il faut le faire. Je veux les députés québécois autour de moi afin de déterminer le comment." Don't worry about the accent. But appeal to women.

Those would be my talking points. Let the principal put them in his own words.

[Michael Hardner]

Martin will try to portray the CPC tax cuts as irresponsible. He will try to get Harper to explain what he will cut, and when Harper floats above the question, he will try to highlight the hidden economic agenda.

Martin will also focus on the social issues/free vote thing.

In French, Martin will try to scare Quebecers into voting for him by pointing out that Harper will cut jobs in Quebec - government jobs, jobs in subsidized industries etc.

Uh... I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen Martin in a debate and I don't think I have. I can't see Martin coming off as looking confident in such a scenario.

[Argus]

Martin will attack Harper's tax cuts. Harper should mock him for his "end of the world" statements, point out that Martin himself promised a tax cut twice as big in his 2000 budget, but didn't carry through. It would help if he pointed out, if he can, quickly and in an easy to understand fashion, how absurd that $50billion figure is.

Martin and Layton will attack Harper over abortion. Harper needs to bring up the names of anti-abortion candidates in their parties. Ask Layton about Mona Mazigh, the chador wearing candidate in Ottawa south, and Des Mcgrath, the ex priest, and others who are anti-abrtion, ask Martin about his pro life candidates like Galloway and Wappel. Then laugh off the whole abortion thing as a smoke screen designed to hide the other parties lack of coherent strategy. "You and Jack know perfectly well that the chance of abortion being banned in a free vote in the House is virtually nil, so why do you keep bringing it up except to hide your own failings?"

Harper needs to make a big deal of his desire to address the "democratic deficit" in the House by allowing more free votes, and ask Martin how come he's abandoned his concern for the "democratic deficit". Is Martin against free votes? Oh, only on abortion? But haven't a number of Liberals brought up anti abortion motions in the past? Harper needs to talk about how allowing free votes to MPs will return power to them and to their constituents, and how the MPs should be representing their constituents wishes to the party and House, not the other way around.

He needs to talk about reigning in corruption and patronage, and the cost of them to taxpayers. He needs to talk about how his govenment would ensure that they would only pay for services and goods the country needs, and only from the lowest bidders. No more paying for overpriced studies on the mating habits of the tse-tse flies to Liberal friendly academics, or overpriced advertising to Liberal friendly advertising firms, or overpriced goods from Liberal friendly suppliers. He needs to talk about how massive patronage leads to the corruption we've seen, to talk about increasing the scope and powers of the Auditor General's office.

He needs to portay Martin as a political weasel with no morals leading a party rife with corruption and dishonesty, but do it with dignity. He needs to project a Prime Ministerial image, chiding Martin for his party's corruption, and when Martin claims he knew nothing he can shake his head. "Paul, you were the most powerful Finance Minister perhaps in Canadian history, by far the most powerful minister in the Chretien cabinet for ten long years, with supporters all through the Liberal Party, especially in Quebec, and you want us to believe you didn't know a thing about this? Come on. And once you found out what did you do? You directed your MPs on the commitee to help cover things up and then shut the committe down as fast as you could.

Towards Layton, he needs to prod him into just how much his tax increases would cost individual Canadians in the middle class. What would be the difference in tax rates for a middle class family of four between the Tories and the NDP? Big numbers are fine, but let the individual see the figure which affects him or her personally.

He needs to appeal to Canadians sense of independance. Canadians want to be left alone to manage their own lives, not have a huge, bloated government bureacracy squatting atop them telling them everything they can do, watch, say and think.