The first Ontario Liberal leadership debate was one to forget

First off, let me say this column will probably sound harsher than it should. Monday’s Ontario Liberal Party / Parti Libéral de l’Ontario leadership candidates’ debate in Brampton was just the first of many that will be held before party members and supporters choose their new leader in November.

But having seen innumerable leaders’ debates over the years, I have a high bar for what passes for a good show — and a low tolerance for bad performance. Unfortunately for Liberals, the show was not good and most of the individual performances were uninspiring. A good candidate should display a mix of authenticity, preparedness, understanding of the job ahead, and performance chops. To this observer’s eyes, the only candidate who came close to checking all those boxes was Dylan Marando, who’s never been elected to anything before, but has considerable policy-making experience in the offices of premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The other four candidates were… well, let’s charitably say they were rusty. If this were a late-night comedy show in the 1970s, we’d call them the not-ready-for-prime-time players, as the cast of Saturday Night Live was referred to half a century ago.

I do understand that in a ranked ballot system, where all […] This is an excerpt. Read the full article at TVO.org.