The big takeaways from last night's debate

By Michelle Ghoussoub

As promised, here’s your newsletter — debate recap edition.

It’s worth saying that the stakes for Tuesday night’s debate were perhaps even higher than usual. In a campaign with few off-the-cuff moments and hardly any opportunities for provincial leaders to interact with the public, this was their one moment to appeal directly to voters while critiquing each other directly. 

And they all needed to accomplish very different things in just 90 minutes. NDP Leader John Horgan, whose party has been up in the polls for weeks, had to stay the course and basically avoid any flubs (unclear whether he managed that, as you’ll read below.) Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson had the uphill task of pulling voters to his party, which has lagged in the polls and been haunted by a recent controversy involving sexist comments made toward an NDP candidate. And Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, who as of debate night had been party leader for all of four weeks and one day, had to essentially introduce herself to British Columbians while convincing them to vote for what has long been considered a niche party with few seats and support in a very concentrated geographic area of the province.

But if you didn’t know Furstenau before Tuesday night, you certainly know her now. She managed to cut through much of the din between Horgan and Wilkinson as they traded barbs about whether longstanding issues should be pinned on the NDP or on former Liberal governments.

But there was perhaps one standout moment when moderator Shachi Kurl asked the candidates if and how they have personally reckoned with their own white privilege. 

Wilkinson answered first and vaguely, saying he moved from southern Alberta to B.C. to work as a young doctor, and that he believes a young Indigenous child that he delivered is named after him. Horgan went next, answering that as a young person he played lacrosse with Indigenous and South Asian kids on Vancouver Island and that he “doesn’t see colour.” That line was swiftly condemned on social media, with viewers commenting that it seemed out of touch and out of line with the level of discourse on race seen in 2020.

Horgan immediately retracted the comments in his post-debate scrum (whether he immediately regretted the wording, or was debriefed on the reaction to it by staff was unclear), saying he was speaking about his childhood and didn’t mean to downplay the struggles faced by people of colour. He also issued a tweet about it soon after — but it’s clear this was just the kind of faux pas he was trying to avoid heading into Tuesday night.

A high-stakes night for all

Furstenau, meanwhile, delivered a powerful statement on how she has reflected on what it would be like to raise a Black child and live in fear of the police. ("We aren’t all equal. I wish we were, but we’re not,” she said.) It was key that Furstenau nail the question, as the Greens have historically faced widespread criticism about a lack of diversity in their party and among their supporters. Whether Furstenau’s comments (and the relative flubs by her opponents) can do anything to change that perception will be crucial.

Elsewhere in the debate, the three leaders clashed on pipelines, big energy projects, homelessness, ICBC, and the question of whether the snap election call has delayed emergency financial supports for businesses. 

Furstenau slammed Wilkinson and Horgan for “propping up” big energy projects to the tune of $6 billion — while Wilkinson and Horgan tried to shift blame for the embattled Site C dam project onto each other.

That was another theme — Horgan attempted to pin years of Liberal rule and decisions on Wilkinson himself. Wilkinson, meanwhile, tried to paint Horgan as dishonest and a leader who has divided British Columbians — all while defending past comments he’s made about renters and questions about his handling of sexist comments made about NDP candidate Bowinn Ma.

But zingers and some crosstalk aside, you might have been disappointed if you were expecting an American-style debate. This one was largely civil, pointed, and covered at least 15 different policy points. 

Now, whether our leaders did a good enough job to bring voters to their camps is up to you.

That's it for us today. For the latest headlines, check cbc.ca/bc.