Tonight I attended a candidates debate for my riding which was better than I expected and also quite disappointing. Based on an article in the local paper about the debate in Lake Louise last week, I was expecting tonight to be a train wreck - most of the candidates seemed woefully unprepared and uninformed. Tonight I was impressed by the confidence of most of them and the way they expressed their own opinions and their parties platforms. (I was kind of looking forward to a disaster and with the exception of one instance in which the Libertatian candidate was loudly laughed at, there was no major embarrassment.)

However, I do live in Alberta. Wild Rose, the riding that I am currently in, is an odd one because it is comprised of cattle land, farm land, Calgary suburbs, and a national park. The first three areas tend to be Conservative. The last, where I live, leans toward Green and the NDP. Before the debate tonight (and before reading the article about the Lake Louise debate) I was planning to vote Green, because they came in second last time (by about 30,000 votes, granted, but still second), thinking that maybe there was a chance. Now, I don't think there is a chance in hell that this riding will be anything but Conservative, so I am going to vote for the candidate I like best.

I was also disappointed that it was not so much a debate as a panel discussion - the candidates rarely addressed each other's points or challenged the others (with the exception of the NDP candidate who did rib the Conservative guy a bit), nor was the audience allowed to argue with them. Rebuttals are an important part of debate and while the crowd often whispered them to each other, nothing was said out loud. It's not a debate if there's not an argument.

The good news is that my Alberta drivers license finally arrived today, so now I can vote with a minimum of paperwork.