NDP's Carole James delivers a spellbinding performance in leaders debate

Spellbinding, Charlie? Oh my. All three leaders actually did well staking out their turf. If you are a voter that still has a job or business and think the status quo still appeals to you, then Campbell did an adequate job saying he was solid & steady for that voter. If you want a different team essentially doing a similar job, then Carole James looked well informed and campaign skilled and competent. Sterk was strong on issues of prohibition, post-secondary education, climate change and carbon taxes, and distinguished her party from the left/right paradigm.

The debate format was very tight and disciplined, which I think benefits the viewers and the three leaders got treated fairly by the moderator. It was a good job I thought in getting a measure of the three leaders.

What were you smoking? Campbell was patronizing and avoided answering questions. Hint: one was on BC Rail corruption. His own health minister George Abbott said the Libs failed on care beds for seniors so who is lying? What's with the snarky comment about his "big job" - I think issues with strong intelligent women? What about oil drilling, cuts to parks, wild salmon being infected, selling our rivers, our farmland? What about underfunding of post secondary, cuts to grants and high tuition fees? What about BC being #1 in child (and family) poverty and #1 in job losses (80,000 jobs lost so far). I could go on. Oh yeah, Sterk as she admitted wasn't in it.

Carole James is strong, clear, intelligent and focussed on getting our province back on track. She will provide the leadership to help us (all of us including seniors, families, students, workers) through these tough times.

If Gordon Campbell is saying that the average wage for young people is $13 an hour.... If it is the median wage, and the minimum wage is only $8, with a training wage of $6... Who is getting the $18 to $20 to bring up the average for young workers?

Can Mr. Campbell please tell me where those jobs are that I can recommend to students and other young workers?

Does this mean that under the current system fo the past 8 years, the middle class is disappearing as the poor get poorer, and the rich get richer? Thank you very much Mr. Campbell.

www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

Just to clarify. My previous comment was in response to the comment by Marc.

Thanks for your article Charlie. I agree. Carole gave a spellbinding performance.

The greens can say anything they want knowing it wont affect them in the polls because they cant grasp a mainstream footing required to win anyways.

Carole got some pretty good jabs at Campbell; Campbell proved his ability to lie yet again. He didnt talk much about what hes going to do. He just repeated some promises that he apparently thinks he followed through on, though seniors, students, etc know its a lie.

On a scale of 1 to 10 -

James scored a 8 - not stellar, but very good.

Gordo scored a 4 - evasive and patronizing. He did not give a straight answer.

Sterk scored a 2 - not prepared and not able.

Mair's axiom #1: You don't have to be a ten in politics to win, rather you can be a 2, if everyone else is a 1.

James is a 4, while Gordo and Sterk are a 2 and a 1 respectively.

Grumpy is as Grumpy does!

If Grumpy is giving James an eight, you know she performed exceptionally well. Because Grumpy will probably not give a 10 to anyone who doesn't promote efficient, street-level light rail. It's too bad that transit didn't get addressed in the debate.

Gordon Campbell prides himself on his "leadership" qualities.
During the debate he came across as condescending, evasive, patronizing and defensive.
Are these leadership qualities? Definitely not the qualities I want in my premier.
Go Carole Go!

Sterk did a terrible job at what she was really there for - to siphon away enough fringe NDP votes to reelect Campbell. I note she pooh poohed the NDP's 10 bucks a hour in favor of her guaranteed annual income (estimated at $16 hr). That sure gave lie to her claim that she equally siphons LIberal votes. What BC Liberal supporter would vote for that as well as her legalizing Crack policy.

Note that James let Campbell get away with mentioning his environmental sellouts Da Gucci Suzuki and Weaver, without whacking him and Sterk with Alexandra's Morton's definitive quote

"I personally don't think the salmon are going to survive another Liberal term"

Lost a great opportunity there.

Finally not a word on BCHydro's 30 billion dollars in IPP
losses buying power it can't use and must sell for an 85% loss on the spot market. And the Campbell promises to double that. This gives Campbell the record for worst economic decision ever made by a Canadian politician and shows the BC Liberals couldn't manage a lemonade stand. Its a conspiracy damn it.
seth

The voters of BC have been left with no choice, and that is exactly what I mean. There is no good choice for the voters. The Liberals cannot be trusted to manage the resources of our province, the NDP cannot be trusted to manage our money, and the Greens just can't manage. If we could elect the best people and they were able to work together, we might have a good chance of getting through the current economic crisis. There is a problem there in that the NDP have guaranteed that we do not always have the best people to vote for. In some ridings we can only vote for the best female or visible minority. It was hard enough before to elect a good representative and they have not helped. "Oh well", and that is going to be the response of many voters.