I think my favourite part of any campaign is live-blogging the debate. So, you can be sure that I’ll be doing just that tonight (en francais) and tomorrow (en anglais).

But, with 5 leaders and few big issues, the debates might turn out to be rather dull. That’s why I present the 2008 Canadian Election Debate Drinking Game.

Take a drink whenever someone…
-With no chance of becoming PM says “as Prime Minister I would…”
-Tells a touching story about a senior they met on the campaign trail
-Says they are “surprised” by something unsurprising an opponent says
-mentions “Canadian values“
-mentions “average Canadians“
-says “strong leader“
-says “while I don’t agree with Mr. X, at least he has taken a firm stand“
-says “Canadians are telling me”

Take a shot when someone name drops…
George Bush
Julie Couillard
Bob Rae
Brian Mulroney
Barack Obama
Ed Broadbent
John Howard

Take a sip of your shaken martini (or any pretentious drink that pretends to be cool) every time Stephen Harper…
-mentions past Liberal governments
-says “the fundamentals of the economy are strong”
-calls The Green Shift a “tax on everything”
-calls the opposition “reckless” and/or “irresponsible”
-tries to smile

Take a sip of your wine (make sure it is a local wine, so as to minimize your carbon footprint!) every time Stephane Dion…
-mentions past Liberal governments
-says something eerily similar to one of his Tory commercial lines (“it is not easy to make priorities”, “that is unfair”, etc)
-confuses you about The Green Shift
-mentions the environment in response to a question having nothing at all to do with the environment
-looks exasperated at something Jack Layton says

Take a chug of your good ‘old working family kitchen table beer every time Jack Layton…
-promises “results for people”
-talks about “kitchen tables”
-scapegoats big banks or oil companies
-talks about ATM fees
-says something that makes you want to smack him

Take a sip of a drink you liked a decade ago but have since outgrown every time Gilles Duceppe…
-says “fe-DE-RAWL–lism“
-makes an English pop culture reference
-scapegoats Alberta
-says something incredibly ironic [see his 2006 gem “Harper, you can’t keep holding votes on gay marriage just because you don’t like the result“]
(notice how I don’t have “mentions separatism” here since, let’s be serious, he’s obviously not going to)

Chug a glass of beet juice every time Elizabeth May…
-compliments Stephane Dion
-starts rambling
–inadvertently insults Canadians
-says something hopelessly idealistic