Ontario Leaders Debate Round-Up

In which the real winners were us. And Steve Paikin. Is there any debate he can't moderate?

So, about that debate last night. One poll finds that Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty won the day, with NDP Leader Andrea Horwath making the biggest gains, and a former Stephen Harper speechwriter says PC Leader Tim Hudak was victorious, but it seems as if the immediate consensus (and our belief) is that all three leaders performed reasonably well and that we're about where we left off before the debate began. Not that the debate wasn't worth watching! Far from it! There were actual, substantive exchanges on pressing issues like the Green Energy Act, globalization, health-care delivery, the HST, tuition ... you know, the stuff the leaders basically avoided talking about until last night. Oh, and Hudak and McGuinty loved talking about their grandmothers (to be fair, though, who doesn't?). With just eight days remaining before the Oct. 6 vote, we're not sure that the debate will move the polls too much in one way or the other, but at least it was almost as exciting as the preseason hockey game between two bottom-feeding Ontario teams that it was scheduled against.