Amid the GOP Circus in Cleveland, Canada Was Having a Typically Canadian Debate

Overshadowed by the crowded field in Fox News’s GOP debate and Donald Trump’s ridiculous sound bites, another display of democracy, albeit much less flashy, was underway in North America on Thursday. In Toronto, the leaders of Canada’s four main political parties gathered to politely debate one another in what is set to be a decisive election for America’s northern neighbor.

While the crowded GOP debate was heavy on the theatrics, the Canadian debate took place in a stale white room with neither an audience nor journalists present, as the four candidates struggled to differentiate themselves on key issues such as climate change and job creation in a rigidly formal, though subtly aggressive debate. Canada, never mind its politics, rarely makes headlines in the United States, so most Americans can be forgiven for not knowing that Canada heads to the polls on Oct. 19 for federal elections.

But beyond the differences in style, the two neighbors showed some important differences on substance as well. “The Republican debate was striking in how ideological it was,” J.J. McCullough, a Canadian political commentator, told Foreign Policy. “Whether you agree with it or not, the GOP was focused on fundamental questions about the role of government. Whereas the Canadian debate was centered on statistics and wonky arguments.”

Like in the United States, the state of the economy is at the forefront of the Canadian public’s mind. The Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, wants the election to be about economic management and national security, traditional strengths that have allowed Harper and his party to maintain power since 2006. Its main competition is a collection of parties on the left — the New Democratic Party led by Thomas Mulcair and the closer to center Liberal Party headed by Justin Trudeau, whose father was famed Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The field was rounded out by Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, whose platform centers on the environment.

In one exchange, Harper admitted the Canadian economy is on the verge of a recession after it shrank for five straight months — a point that pushed the debate down a convoluted rabbit hole of whether Canada’s economic malaise does indeed qualify as a recession. This was followed by the kind of formal exchanges and subdued aggression that characterize Canadian politics. “Mr. Harper, we really can’t afford another four years of you,” said Mulcair, who is currently leading the polls, followed by Harper.

Many Americans might relish this meatier but low-octane political discourse, especially after a GOP debate that featured misogynistic comments from Trump, but Canada’s first-past-the-post parliamentary system is not without its own problems. For starters, political parties control the selection of candidates, making an intra-party debate such as the one in Cleveland unheard of in Canadian politics. “The American system is more willing to trust the average voter than the Canadian system,” McCullough said. “For instance, Donald Trump is a problematic character for many U.S. politicians, but it is assumed that the American people will eventually sort out whether he is a true contender or not.”

Moreover, the Canadian party leaders have been hesitant to engage with the press — with the prime minister ducking reporters after the debate. “It used to be a tradition for every leader to take questions after debates, but under Harper this has changed,” said Justin Ling, a parliamentary correspondent for Vice News who covered Thursday’s debate. “At this point, the prime minister’s inaccessibility has almost become a joke.”

Canada’s parliamentary system also allows for its own brand of wheeling and dealing. “America has swing states. But in Canada the whole country can swing,” said John McArthur, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Because Canada’s executive is chosen from the party with the most votes in the legislature, the reins of power are subject to temporary alliances between parties, unless one party has an absolute majority of votes in parliament.

With Harper commanding the political right in Canadian politics, the New Democrats and the Liberals are left competing with the prime minister for the center and with one another for the allegiance of the left. “There is a reasonable scenario where they split the left to the advantage of the prime minister,” said McArthur. (The Green Party commands just a couple percent in polls.)

This battle for Canada’s left took some interesting turns during the debate, with Trudeau of the Liberals accusing the New Democrats’ Mulcair of pandering to Quebec voters while campaigning in French about the issue of separatism and making different statements in English. Currently, the New Democrats lead in the polls and the party recently made big gains in Alberta — traditionally a Conservative Party stronghold.

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