Marois vs Legault: No Caribou Were Hurt During This Debate

François Legault's worst nightmare?

At one point during this 3rd head-to-head debate between the Quebec leaders featuring the PQ's Pauline Marois and the CAQ's François Legault, the topic of popular initiative referendums came up and Legault suggested that the spectre of hardcore separatists demanding a Quebec Independence would be catastrophic:

"Like caribou leading the herd off a cliff!"

He probably meant buffalo but credit the noble caribou that graces our Canadian coinage as having had such an impact on François Legault's psyche that he could only imagine the disaster that would befall a nation if such a majestic animal were to be led into a chasm.

And so they spoke at length about popular initiative referendums that have all the binding authority of a Federal Environment Assessment Plan.

None.

But a strange thing became clear to me during this debate: François Legault isn't simply out of his depth when debating, he deliberately repeats himself incessantly and cuts his opponent off to argue the same point over and over again. He has his talking points: Pauline Marois has her hands tied to unions and that she's the Queen of Inaction. And he asks, over and over again, that the PQ puts forth its economic plan (a legitimate point, I grant you).

But the constant repetition is grinding and irritating.

Marois came across as the more polished politician despite having a bad day of having to backtrack on her claim that only Quebecers whose French is "good enough" would be able to sit at the National Assembly or in a mayoral office.

Anglophones and aboriginals did not take kindly to having to pass the "Marois test" to enter political office.

It's hard to say if the more aggressive style of Legault won people over. People are fed up of excuses and his Alexander the Great solution to the "Gordian Knot" problem that is emergency room wait times.

On the economy, they seemed obstinate to want to talk at the same time and I don't think anything new was discussed but many numbers were tossed around and I suspect many people used this crucial time to visit the bathroom.

So who won this debate? I have a lesser opinion of François Legault after the debates than I had going into them so that's a remarkable feat for him to pull off. Pauline Marois, with her yet to be released Financial Plan, her nebulous position on a Quebec referendum and her improvised language laws fills me with anything but confidence in her.

The winner: Françoise David and Quebec Solidaire who only appeared in the SRC debate but had a good showing. She undeniably had the best showing of any candidate by far.

How will things shake out come September 4th? I don't think anyone dares to make a prediction.