EDITORIAL – Imagine that – a political debate that was worth watching
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
THERE WAS A CLEAR WINNER in Tuesday night’s B.C. leaders’ debate.
As usual, all three parties fired off media releases right after it was over claiming victory.
According to the BC Liberals, their leader Andrew Wilkinson “took down” the NDP’s John Horgan. Not so, said the NDP — Horgan bested Wilkinson, even blaming him for the plight of seniors during the pandemic.
And the BC Greens insisted their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the case for more Green MLAs.
But the real winner was none of the above. No, the title goes to moderator Shachi Kurl of the Angus Reid Institute, who accomplished the seemingly impossible task of keeping the leaders mostly on-topic and respectful.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Mel, is it something with older white males? Wilkinson and Horgan also screwed it up. The moderator’s name is Shachi, not Sachi. I’ll note that Sonia nailed it. Little things like this show respect.
Yes, I did misspell it even though I know how to pronounce it. I corrected it on the CFJC website but neglected to do so on this one. It has nothing to do with being an older white male. I agree that spelling and pronouncing names correctly is important but there’s no need for you to assign those kinds of reasons to it.
The fallout and incivility of the first presidential debate south of the border must’ve influenced and spooked everyone into a heightened sense of civility right here in (usually) beautiful British Columbia.