What to expect in first federal leaders debate

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The writ hasn’t even dropped yet, but we are days away from watching the main party leaders go head to head for the first time.

What will federal leader Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair be doing in the lead-up to the August 6th event?

It’s such a tight race and campaigning has unofficially begun, so don’t expect to see any less of Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Tom Mulcair, or Elizabeth May, says UBC Political Scientist, David Moscrop.

He adds they’ll all be on high alert to make sure they don’t mess up, saying the last thing any candidate wants is to go into a debate in the midst of a gaffe, but, that won’t take down the number of public appearances they do.

“I would basically be trying to prepare a narrative that I can lead with out of the gate because what it might end up doing is setting the tone going forward right? It’s going to be a battle over who gets to decide what the election’s about.”

Now if he were a party leader, he’d be preparing pretty heavily for the debate.

“And I think the leader who wins is going to be the leader who is able to craft the most compelling and clear message about what their party stands for, and what the election is about, while undercutting his or her opponents.”

Moscrop adds there is a group — those on holiday, or those who may stay tuned out until the election happens.

“I suspect that there’s going to be a slightly higher than usual number who are going to be interested because it’s a tight race, and that’s been communicated to people over and over again for the last couple of months, so it feels like there’s something at stake. It’s almost like, ‘oh, its a playoff game,’ something that’s worth tuning into because the stakes are higher than usual, so that might draw some people in.”

Catch our live stream of the Macleans leaders debate at 5pm on Thursday August 6th on NEWS 1130.com, and watch it live on City and OMNI.