For the second time in an historically long election campaign, the three main party leaders met to discuss the issues.
But the debate played out on more than just the backlit stage in Calgary. It also played out on Twitter as politicians and political junkies alike highlighted some of the one-liners, zingers, and head scratchers from the debate on the economy.
What’s an old-stock Canadian?
In a tense debate over the government’s policy on providing health care to immigrants and refugees, Harper defended his stance and suggested “old-stock Canadians” agree with him.
Neither Mulcair nor Trudeau seized on the comment during the debate (Trudeau did mention it in post-debate scrums) and many Twitter users were left guessing at what defines an “old-stock Canadian.”
The term might seem odd when spoken by a party leader during a nationally televised debate, but the term has been used by politicians elsewhere, including inside the House of Commons. A search on OpenParliament.ca shows the term “old stock” referred to 56 times, though some of those include “old stocks” of things like oil.
For whom the bell tolls
So who won the debate? Harper, Mulcair, or Trudeau? According to Twitter users, the hands-down winner was the bell used to quiet the contestants.
And because apparently nothing can ever happen without a parody Twitter account being created, there was at least two.
Elizabeth May participated too
Though Green Party leader Elizabeth May wasn’t officially part of the debate, she was able to participate via Twitter. And she dominated too.
Data provided by Twitter shows @ElizabethMay was mentioned 14,161 times during the debate – almost three times the amount of mentions either Harper or Mulcair got, and over 6,000 more than Trudeau.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi shines
Another person not invited to participate in the debate, for obvious reasons, was Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi – but he was sitting in the front row and that didn’t stop him from participating on Twitter.
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