Bloc insulted by debate snub as parties buzz over first round of exchanges

OTTAWA – The four combatants in the televised leaders’ debate basked in the glow of self-proclaimed victory Friday as the first week of Canada’s marathon federal election campaign drew to a close.

But not everyone felt triumphant: Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, the odd man out of the debate, called it “surreal” to watch his fellow federal leaders discuss the threshold for Quebec independence without him.

And Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who’s already tried once to spoil Stephen Harper’s party, was at it again Friday, describing her relationship with the prime minister as “dysfunctional” and calling for his ouster.

All of the party leaders were winners in the debate — at least, according to the parties themselves.

The four camps who duked it out issued the customary flurry of news releases claiming their respective leader triumphed in the initial exchange of views. The experts seemed to agree: no one stumbled badly, nor clearly stood out.

In the end, the real winner might have been the debate itself, hosted by Maclean’s magazine and ably moderated by political editor Paul Wells, which energized a languid summer campaign and left pundits and observers buzzing.

There were testy volleys on the economy, energy policy and Quebec sovereignty.

Under questioning from NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, Harper appeared to acknowledge the country is enduring a mild recession — a remark Conservative officials tried to walk back the next day.

At a news conference Friday in Richmond Hill, Ont., Harper stuck to his line that some 80 per cent of the Canadian economy is still growing — only the energy sector is shrinking due to falling oil prices.

“We know there are ups and downs,” Harper said. “The choice is you either stick with the plan that’s working and has most of our economy growing, or you adopt plans that throw all of the economy backwards — and that’s what the NDP proposes.”

Mulcair would raise taxes, indulge in out-of-control spending and introduce permanent budget deficits, Harper claimed.

The first week was winding down Friday when Wynne suddenly waded back into the fray, saying Canadians need a prime minister who is willing to work with provincial premiers.”

“This is not personal,” Wynne insisted. “This is about the strength of this province and the strength of this country, and those two fates are intertwined.”

Duceppe might have been thinking something similar as he watched the debate — a disrespectful display, he said, because independence was dissected without the leader of the only federal sovereigntist party.

“I found that surreal,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Trudeau accused Mulcair of wanting to make it easier for Quebecers to separate with a bare majority of 50-plus-one per cent in a referendum. The Liberal leader said his party agrees with the Supreme Court’s 1998 ruling that the question and subsequent result must be “free of ambiguity.”

That left Duceppe agog.

“They exclude me from the debate and then talk for 30 minutes about the (referendum) rules they are going to impose on us.”

Thursday’s debate could turn out to be the only time four leaders — let alone five — gather on the same stage to trade barbs in English during the campaign.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May is not invited to two coming exchanges, one sponsored by the Globe and Mail newspaper on economic issues, the other by the Munk Debates on foreign policy.

And it looks like Harper — and therefore Mulcair — won’t show up at the traditional debate organized by major broadcasters. The NDP leader has made it clear he will take part in debates only if the prime minister is there.

May is still pushing for inclusion in all planned exchanges.

Liberal Gerald Butts, an adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, gave her a boost Friday, tweeting that — partisanship aside — he didn’t see how anyone could make a case to exclude her from the next debates, given her performance Thursday.

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