Debate live blog

10:02 - Stephen Harper and Elizabeth May look quite unfortunate in HD. Layton has many short white hairs on the top of his head that you don't see in standard definition. Dion and Duceppe look about the same.

10:04 - Dion answered the first question relatively clearly, points to him. Harper takes a rough shot at Dion saying he "panicked" by launching a policy on a debate, doesn't answer the question for himself.

10:07 - Dion is given a chance to respond to Harper, starts of strong but then repeats verbatim, with the same tone, his lines from before. Clearly they had been memorized, not sure if the average viewer would pick up on that and view it negatively or not.

10:09 - "Either you don't care, or you're incompotent," Layton to Harper. Harper says it is true that $50b went to big business in tax cuts, but it was a $200b tax cut package with three-quarters going to "families, small businesses", etc.

10:12 - Dion rails agains Flaherty's criticism of Ontario, gets excited and the quality of his English suffers.

10:13 - May gets in a Central Nova riding shout out (Trenton).

10:19 - Cool camera angle. Harper centered with back to camera looking on to Layton and Duceppe both offset. Good for Harper I think, he looks commanding with two apprentices looking on.

10:21 - Dion mocks Layton for saying he opposes a carbon tax when he looks to Sweden as a model which has a carbon tax. Layton rebuts saying they are meeting Kyoto because of a cap-and-trade system like the one the NDP proposes. Dion dismisses him condecendingly.

10:23 - Harper/Duceppe big time showdown on the ultra sexy topic of reimbursable tax credits.

10:28 - Quick switch over to U.S. veep debate...

10:30 - Palin seems to be doing fairly strong. Back to Canada.... whoa, climate change quesion. "We know that it's real," says Palin. "Somthing to be said about man's activities, but also the cyclical changes of our planet..." Now back to Canada for real.

10:31 - ... and right into the deficit question.

10:32 - Shockingly, all leaders say they wouldn't not run a deficit. I can't believe it. This will be the headline tomorrow, who could have predicted it!?!? Layton makes a cute jab about how Tommy Douglas never ran a deficit and, as for Bob Rae, "I guess he's with [the Liberals] now."

10:42 - Layton gets same angle as 10:19 vs. Harper and May, not quite as cool looking though as it is not perfectly centered.

10:43 - Harper explains his climate change plan that sounds pretty strong, although I assume it is not. May rebuts him relatively effectively.

10:45 - Then Duceppe does and Layton. Dion takes a pass on rebuttng Harper to further explain Green Shift, does so quite effectively.

10:47 - Healthcare, availability of doctors, as the feds have no real ability to change this, back over to U.S. Palin mocking Obama on foreign policy, sounds silly but does so effectively.

10:53 - Back to Canada. Things are pretty rowdy. Looks like Layton must have accused Harper of being against medicare.

10:55 - May aledges that NAFTA could allow Americans to bring private medicine to Canada, saying Harper's job as head of CTF was to destroy medicare. For the former point, wouldn't that have happened by now? The latter, somewhat fair but a bit of a stretch.

11:03 - Paikin: "Are Conservatives barbarians?" Oooo-kaaaayy.....

11:04 - "It's not the choice of politicians who will be helped by the government," says Dion. Ummm... so we have politicians why?

11:08 - Paikin: "I'm trying to make sure that Biden and Palin don't take our audience here..." that reminds me... *push recall* "... most important election ... since 1932," says Biden. Good to know.

11:12 - Palin still seems to be holding her own. Switching back to Canada.

11:17 - Layton takes an effective shot on Harper, pointing out his crime legislation would have passed a year ago if he hadn't prorogued parliament.

11:23 - Dion accuses Layton of destroying Kelowna Accord by "joining a coalition" with Harper to bring down the government. Layton very strongly puts Dion down by indicating how many times Dion has voted with the Harper government and says "if you can't even be leader of the opposition, what are you doing running for prime minister?" Ouch.

11:26 - Duceppe takes a shot at Layton, compliments the Liberals (backhandedly). Has he taken a shot at Dion? It is clear that Duceppe sees Harper as his principal opponent, but it is almost as though Layton is his secondary one?

11:28 - Checking in with the Americans, I believe they wrap up at 11:30.

11:29 - Palin's closing includes a shot at the mainstream media, says she likes taking the tough questions without the media filter.

11:32 - Biden's closing talks about his roots "like most of you".

11:33 - Back to Canada. CIDA is politicized? Interesting, I am not sure if what May says is true or not. Anyone in a position to speak without spin?

11:37 - Duceppe says "I know I won't be prime minister, and I know three of you won't be prime minister." I.e. a Harper win is a foregone conclusion.

11:38 - May says the first thing she would do would be change the electoral system to proportional representation. Okay, so worst case scenario, there would be an election in what? Six months? So the first thing you do is change the electoral system? Couldn't that wait until, I don't know, you'd accomplished something worth going to the polls on?

11:42 - Dion says he is courageous.

11:43 - May says a lack of income splitting robs $5 billion from married couples, says for someone who is a defender of marriage it doesn't make sense.

11:49 - May makes a good call out for populism.

11:53 - Layton does a good job listing just about every Liberal election promise that was broken right back to the Clear Grits platform in 1856.

11:58 - Paikin makes another Biden-Palin joke as we close, he is lucky it is over.

WRAP UP:

Not a bad debate, everyone had their good moments. In terms of the expectations game, I think Dion won. In terms of deliverable results, I think May won as she was articulate and didn't come off as a "crazy enviro-nut" and will be able to actually get the votes (high single digits) that polls suggest she will. In terms of an actual winner from a debate-in-a-vacuum view? Probably a draw.

Note: Due to technical difficulties, though this was written live, it was posted at the conclusion of the debate.