Notebook: Audience proves to be a key part of Munk debate

Itzik Basman was 12 rows back from the stage but that didn’t stop him from getting involved in the federal leaders’ debate on foreign policy hosted by Munk in Toronto Monday night. “Let him talk, let him talk,” he yelled at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who was interrupting Conservative Leader Stephen Harper during a spirited exchange over citizenship and Bill C-24, which allows the government to revoke citizenship if a person commits serious acts against the country, such as terrorism.

The crowd shushed him, but then the cross-talk between the two leaders escalated and there were more jeers and boos.

For 100 minutes, Mr. Harper, Mr. Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair debated foreign policy during the fourth of five debates scheduled during the 78-day election campaign.

In any other debate, Mr. Basman would have been yelling at a television set. But for this debate there was an audience – and the 2,500 who packed Roy Thomson Hall became as much part of the debate as the three political leaders. The audience made the debate more interesting.

Audience members applauded, muttered under their breath and laughed at both the questions and the answers. At times the leaders played to the audience; for example, when Mr. Trudeau was accusing Mr. Harper of looking for terrorists under every leaf and rock. As he said that, Mr. Harper began looking under his podium. The audience loved it.

The audience laughed when Mr. Harper said, ”We have a great relationship with the U.S. administration.” They laughed, too, when moderator Rudyard Griffiths asked Mr. Trudeau, “If you become prime minister, how would you deal with Vladimir Putin?”

It was a raucous debate.

A senior Trudeau strategist said that they had always wanted an audience for debates “as a principle.” “That was a good one,” he said, referring to the Munk audience.

Watching the three political leaders debate in real life on a stage rather than on television was like watching a theatre performance. It was engaging, engrossing and a totally different experience – one that Mr. Griffiths hopes becomes the norm.

The English subtitles, which appeared on the large monitors over the stage translating the leaders from French to English, were incomprehensible.

The always eloquent author, historian and former newspaperman doesn’t mince words:

“I would say it was a tie between Stephen and Justin,” he said about Mr. Harper and Mr. Trudeau. He noted he was disappointed by Mr. Mulcair’s personal attacks on Mr. Trudeau.

In addition he said he doesn’t think some of Mr. Mulcair’s policies are “defensible.”

“He’s not going to get there with 50-per-cent-plus-one vote and the separatists can take four million Québécois out of Canada into a new country,” he said, referring to Mr. Mulcair’s position on sovereignty. His party would recognize a 50-per-cent-plus-one vote in a referendum.

“We didn’t get into his budget proposals tonight, but they’re not going to fly either. He’s going to balance the budget without really raising taxes while he spends more …”

Twitter’s end-of-debate statistics show there were 38,654 tweets issued with #Munkdebate. And it listed the number of tweets mentioning the leaders: @pmharper: 2,544; @thomasmulcair: 2,182; @justintrudeau: 8,934 and @elizabethmay: 1,144.

Meanwhile, the Green Party had the second most retweeted tweet: “Mr. Harper, if you want to take credit for the drop in emissions, you can also take credit for the 2008 global economic crisis. #MunkDebate”

VICE News reporter Hilary Beaumont had the third most retweeted tweet of the debate for the picture and explanation she sent outside of the event outside of Roy Thomson Hall during the predebate protests. “List of the 20,000 migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean, according to No One Is Illegal”

And the number one retweeted tweet was sent out on Justin Trudeau’s account before the debate began: “Canada must immediately sponsor 25K refugees from Syria and Iraq. RT if you agree. #MunkDebate”