Make today’s Maclean’s leaders debate more interesting — with bingo!

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Today’s Maclean’s National Leaders Debate will no doubt be “must see TV” for political junkies across the country, but what about the rest of us?

A local candidate has a plan to make things a little more interesting.

Ever heard of debate bingo? If you haven’t, it’s just like regular bingo, except the object is to listen for some of those crutch phrases politicians like to use again and again.

North Vancouver Green Party candidate Claire Martin has a few favourites.

“When somebody says, ‘let me be clear about this.’ That’s one of those phrases,” she explains.

“When they talk about ‘We’ve been re-investing across communities in Canada and it goes to show…’ You know, it’s like, really? You’re not telling me anything. That’s political babble-speak!”

Martin’s organizers have also included some more topical choices, like whenever Liberal leader Justin Trudeau uses the phrase “middle class” more than once in the same sentence.

Another one is if NDP boss Tom Mulcair brings up climate change without mentioning energy giant Kinder Morgan.

Martin says to listen for any time Trudeau use the phrase “real change” or when her own boss Elizabeth May mentions any of her candidates by name.

“And of course, there will be prizes. You’ll probably get a button or a badge or a pencil. But yeah, we’re going to play games with that sort of thing,” she says.

Martin says it’s all about starting a conversation. “[The game] is just trying to get people to analyze what they’re hearing. It’s a fun way of doing that.”

If you’d like to play along with Martin and her team, she is hosting a debate viewing party at her campaign office, located at 129 West Esplanade Avenue in North Vancouver.

You can watch the Macleans National Leaders Debate live starting at 5 p.m. on City and OMNI and of course, we will be streaming it right here on NEWS1130.com.