I will try to analyze last night’s Ontario party leaders’ debate on a deeper level than “zingers” and “takeaways.” What concerns me is how they presented themselves and the overall image or message that they conveyed. Images and messages are not only a function of words, but of body language and tone of voice.

Despite the issue Doug Ford used to justify the election – which leader was most capable of fighting Donald Trump’s tariffs – there was virtually no discussion of this by the other leaders. Rather, the focus was on Ford’s record and policy issues in Ontario: healthcare, policing, housing affordability, taxation, education, and the environment.

Doug Ford: Build Baby Build

Ford’s overall message is that the government is doing a good job because it is building infrastructure: highways, roads, transit, hospitals, and Ontario Place. Ford claims the controversial plans for a tunnel under Highway 401 and Therme Spa at Ontario Place will both deliver great value. In his rhetoric, his three opponents would all disappoint Ontarians because they wouldn’t build. And Ford is delighted that there are more cranes in the air in the GTA than anywhere else in North America.

One of the personal questions asked by the moderator is how the leaders spend their leisure time. Ford was proud to say that he has virtually no leisure time. He is up at 5:30 or 6 returning calls, and he spent all of five hours in the last year at his cottage mowing the grass. In effect, his personal activity mirrors the frenetic construction activity. The other leaders’ question, of course, is whether all this activity is worthwhile.

Bonnie Crombie: Righteous Indignation

In the scrum afterwords, Crombie described herself as “a little bit feisty.” Her strategy was to go on the offensive, to prove herself the leader most capable of taking on Doug Ford. She called his healthcare policy a “colossal failure;” the tunnel under Highway 401 a “fantasy tunnel. How dumb is that?”; and on taxes “You [voters] were promised a tax cut, but never go it … You didn’t get it done, Doug, you didn’t cut our taxes.” Near the end of the debate, she got personal: “You were raised privileged, with a silver spoon in your mouth … Doug, you don’t get the plight of the people … you had a company handed to you … you’re just like you friend Donald Trump, you make things up.” These lines were delivered in an angry tone, looking straight at Ford, using his first name.

In the gendered world of political leadership, when a woman expresses anger, she is often considered shrill or abrasive, which disqualifies her for leadership. Crombie is risking being branded with this stereotype. She is attempting to channel voter anger against the sins of commission (the tunnel, Ontario Place) and omission (healthcare spending) of Ford’s Government into votes for the Liberals.

Marit Stiles: A Voice of Hope

If Bonnie Crombie was taking a risk, Marit Stiles was playing it safe. Her message was aggressive, with lots of attacks against both Ford and the Liberals. The latter is especially important to her, because the Liberals are significantly ahead of the NDP in the polls and threaten to displace them as the Official Opposition. Stiles made a point of identifying hallway health care as the legacy of the Liberal Wynne Government as much as the Ford Government and criticizing Crombie for receiving donations totaling $25,000 from housing developers. But these messages were delivered with a calmer voice, with less invective, and with a smile. Stiles appeared to me to be coming off as friendly and hopeful, perhaps channeling Amy Poehler’s Lesley Knope. (Personal disclaimer: watching the Saturday Night Live fiftieth anniversary on Sunday night brought her to mind.)

Mike Schreiner: The Prof

Green Party leader Mike Schreiner has a limited goal, which is to retain his party’s two seats and possibly win one or two more. Consistent with this limited goal, he was confidently putting forward his party’s policies. While he frequently criticized Doug Ford, especially on the Greenbelt, Ontario Place, and Toronto tunnel, he was also criticizing the other leaders, for example for not releasing full costed platforms, as the Greens had. Schreiner had a calm and measured delivery that struck me as professorial.

The Morning After

The media I have been listening to and reading the morning after the debate all seem to agree that Bonnie Crombie got the most attention with her feisty, some would say gutsy, attacks on Doug Ford. What is to be seen in the next few days is whether this will affect the polling results.