Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BC ELECTION 2020

Kamloops voters split on who won Tuesday’s B.C. leaders debate

Oct 14, 2020 | 5:22 PM

KAMLOOPS — Tuesday night marked the first and only B.C. leaders debate of the 2020 election campaign. John Horgan, Andrew Wilkinson and Sonia Furstenau took to a stage at UBC to try to convince British Columbians that they are the right person to lead this province.

CFJC Today spoke to several community members, as well as an associate professor of politics at Thompson Rivers University to find out if there was a clear winner or clear loser after the debate.

There’s just over a week until British Columbians go to the polls. Tuesday night, the leaders of the three political parties represented in the legislature went toe-to-toe-to-toe, in the first and only televised debate of the 2020 election campaign. However, not everyone we spoke with tuned into the event. For those who did, it was a debate without any major fireworks.

It seems voters were split on the overall results of the debate.

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“I don’t think anyone particularly stood out as informed or leading with their positions on any of the questions,” one voter expressed.

“I thought they all held themselves in really, really good shape. I’ve got my opinion on who I want to vote for,” another says.

TRU Associate Professor of Politics Robert Hanlon felt all three leaders stuck to the messages they were hoping to convey.

“I think all three did quite well. I think they got their messages across to their base,” Hanlon suggests. “There weren’t any big, dramatic kerfuffles, if you will.”

Perhaps the most significant message delivered was the civil nature of the debate.

“I thought it was a lot different than on the other side of the [American border], with those crazy people down there,” he says. “We’re a polite people. I think that’s how we operate in Canada.”

“When you see the way the debate played out there, it was a very exhausting, traumatic and dysfunctional experience,” Hanlon says. “It would be hard to be a political leader and not reflect on that and think about how that might change your tactics in debates.”

For Hanlon, he thinks the election will be decided by who the voters think is best equipped to lead the province out of the pandemic.

“As much as we look at all these issues — and they are important — I think the voters are going to be really reflecting on what party can lead the post-pandemic recovery,” Hanlon says. “Both economically, and health-wise.”

We’ll find out which party that is after October 24th.