I haven't seen this many winners from a single event since one of those politically correct sports days that have become the norm at elementary schools these days.
I guess it shouldn't have come as any surprise, but I still had to laugh at the self-critiques offered by the political parties immediately following Monday night's televised leaders' debate. Taking a page out of the playbook of those well-intentioned teachers, it appears everyone came away with a blue first place ribbon.
The Liberals declared: "Premier wins TV debate with clear focus on growing B.C.'s economy." The NDP countered: "BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix won tonight's televised leaders debate, proving it's time for a change in British Columbia." The Conservatives announced: "Conservative Leader John Cummins won tonight's TV Leaders' Debate in what was a clear breakthrough for the party." I couldn't readily find anything crowning the Green's Jane Sterk as debate champ, but I suspect it's out there somewhere.
I know I should expect such hyperbole from those with their political futures hanging in the balance, but it underscores the fundamental flaw with any such gathering: How you felt about the candidates and their parties going in is pretty much how you viewed the situation 90 minutes later.
Obviously those involved in the debate, along with their handlers, will instinctively declare victory, but that sentiment tends to extend to the wider population as well. Those who thought Christy Clark won were more than likely Liberal supporters before Monday night. The same goes for those who saw Dix or one of the other two leaders as the winner.
It's not surprising then that pollsters gathering feedback on the perceived victor found Dix and Clark at the top given they're the two with the largest number of committed voters. It's not really a case of which party leader won, for which there is no definitive answer, but who you thought was victorious, which for many people was determined long before the TV cameras began rolling.
The same principle also applies to local all-candidates meetings, where far more people are there to offer support to their candidate of choice than to gather information from which to base their vote.
With 11 days to go until the election, I guess it can't hurt for so many leaders to be declaring victory. Come the evening of May 14th, however, only one of them will be able to legitimately make that claim.
