The strongest, weakest and funniest moments from the Munk Debate

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This article was published 28/09/2015 (3675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — The Munk Debate saw the three men discussing foreign affairs and vying to become — or in one case remain — prime minister of Canada.

It was a wide-ranging debate on a number of topics ranging from the war against the Islamic State, refugees and diplomacy with Russia to climate change, Arctic sovereignty and Canada’s maternal and child health initiative.
 
Here are some of the highlights for each leader.

Justin Trudeau, Liberal:

Strongest moment: Relatively early in the debate, after NDP leader Thomas Mulcair cited Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act, Trudeau took a minute to chastise his opponents for speaking poorly of his father. He noted it was 15 years exactly since Pierre Elliot Trudeau died, and said his father brought to Canada the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which has made Canada strong “not in spite of its differences but because of them.”

“I’m incredibly proud to be Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s son. I’m incredibly lucky to be raised with those values.”

Weakest moment: This debate saw far less interrupting and talking over each other than the previous ones with one notable exception. During a segment on revoking citizenship for people convicted of terrorist offences, Trudeau did not let Harper finish and kept talking over him, which caused several people in the audience to boo.

Funniest moment: In criticizing Harper for fear mongering, Trudeau said Harper would have Canadians believe “a terrorist is hiding behind every leaf and rock and he’s there to protect us.” Then he ducked down slightly behind his podium, which was translucent, and said “it’s a good thing these podiums are transparent.” It generated the first audience laugh of the night.

Stephen Harper, Conservative:

Strongest moment: Having taken a lot of heat from his opponents on the refugee crisis, Harper stood his ground and quietly but firmly defended his government’s actions.

“I can certainly tell you from my visits to the refugee camps in Jordan and debriefings there, we cannot pretend there are no security risks. It is important that we do screening. Those countries in the world that responded to these headlines, as these others would have, by just opening the doors and doing no checking have rapidly regretted that and are now trying to put in place the very kind of system that Canada has been pursuing all along. It’s a generous response, it’s a responsible response, it is not based on the headlines — it is based on the right thing to do.”

He got his biggest applause of the night.

Weakest moment: In a discussion about Canada’s relationship with the United States, Harper started off his first comment by saying “We have a great relationship with the U.S. administration. I have a great relationship with President Obama.” But the audience openly laughed at him.

Funniest moment: In the discussion about Bill C-51, Harper got a laugh from the audience when he decried his opponents concerns that the bill gives too many unfettered powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

“The threat we face today is not CSIS it is ISIS,” said Harper.

Tom Mulcair, NDP:

Strongest moment: In a section about how Canada would deal with the threat of Vladmir Putin and Russia, Mulcair dismissed the idea that Trudeau could or would do so, raising his point again that Trudeau only supported Bill C-51 because he was afraid of being attacked by Harper as soft on terrorism if he didn’t.

“You can’t even stand up to Harper on C-51, how are you going to stand up to Putin,” Mulcair asked.

Weakest moment:

Mulcair was forced to defend his cap-and-trade plan trying to defend it when Trudeau noted not even Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley appears to be on board. Notley said in a speech in Montreal earlier Monday that she didn’t think cap-and-trade was necessarily “the best way forward.” He stammered and tried to say Alberta stands with the federal NDP but the point fell flat.

Funniest moment: While discussing NDP governments’ record on balancing the budget he paused to say “there was one exception but it turns out Bob Rae was a Liberal.”