The debate moderator no one is talking about

Thursday was a busy night. At 5 pm (all times Eastern) the second tier Republican debate took place. Later at 8:50 pm, the debate between the top 10 Republican presidential candidates began. And if that wasn’t enough, for Canadians in general and Torontonians in particular, the Toronto Blue Jays were home to the Minnesota Twins. The Jays have become a lot more exciting to watch after the acquisition of Troy Tulowitzki and pitcher David Price shortly before the trade deadline. For the first time in years, many baseball fans feel the team could go all the way.

Thursday was a busy night. At 5 pm (all times Eastern) the second tier Republican debate took place. Later at 8:50 pm, the debate between the top 10 Republican presidential candidates began. And if that wasn’t enough, for Canadians in general and Torontonians in particular, the Toronto Blue Jays were home to the Minnesota Twins. The Jays have become a lot more exciting to watch after the acquisition of Troy Tulowitzki and pitcher David Price shortly before the trade deadline. For the first time in years, many baseball fans feel the team could go all the way. Amidst all this, there was a Canadian leaders’ debate that ran from 8 to 10 pm. The October 19 election was officially called a week ago and this debate provided the first debate encounter between Prime Minister Harper, Opposition leader Tom Mulcair of the NDP, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May, leader of Canada’s Green Party. We are indeed fortunate to live in a world with PVRs and YouTube. It was hard to decide what to watch. All in all the Canadian debate was relatively tame with the expected party faithful all claiming their leader won. Unlike the first Republican debate, there were no surprises like how well Carly Fiorina did, nor was there a candidate that even approached the excitement generated by Donald Trump even before the so called “moderators” got into the act.

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If any Americans want to see how a real political debate with a proper moderator is run, they should watch how the Canadian media runs a debate

The Canadian debate was moderated by Paul Wells, the political editor of Maclean’s Magazine. Wells is a print journalist, not a talking head who appears regularly on television. He did not in any way attempt to make himself the centre of attention in the debate as did Megyn Kelly. He was soft spoken and during the debate when a candidate answered a question and the others responded, it was easy to forget Wells was even in the room. And that is the way it should be. If there is any criticism of Wells it was that he often allowed the candidates to speak over others although this did not go on too long. The day after the debate, the only mention of Wells in print was that he was the political editor of Maclean’s that sponsored the event and that he was the moderator. Unlike the main Republican debate, Wells did not become an issue in the debate. There were over 2,000 comments to the full debate Maclean’s posted on YouTube. A quick glance of all these comments shows no one ever discussed Wells. The comments were for and against the various candidates, leaders and party policies. No one said the debate itself was a joke. Again, that is the way it should be. The Canadian debate was in sharp contrast to the main Republican debate that saw Fox News in a blatant attempt to take down Donald Trump, especially with Kelly’s “war on women” question. There has since been a lot of discussion of who the moderators were in the tank for; Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush. As to the candidates’ positions on various issues, that did not seem important. If Maclean’s Magazine, that is seen to have a left wing bias, was trying to take down Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Wells obviously never got the message. The worst thing about the Republican debate was it was a slap in the face to Americans in general and Republicans in particular. The whole purpose of a political debate is to allow people to learn about the candidates and their positions so they are better able to make an informed decision when they vote. But that’s just so boring and does not make good television. Channel surfing between Fox and Friends and Morning Joe on MSNBC Friday morning was revealing. While Morning Joe discussed the debate and had some of the candidates on, including Trump, Fox and Friends spent almost the entire show having # about how great their ratings were. Disgusting. The Canadian debate was over two hours in length. If any Americans want to see how a real political debate with a proper moderator is run, they should watch how the Canadian media runs a debate. The video of the debate can be seen here. Go Jays!