Conservative leadership debate gives Edmonton audience chance weigh their options
'You were able to put ideas to their faces and their backgrounds'
The fourth official Conservative leadership debate in Edmonton Tuesday evening seemed to leave some in the audience with a clearer sense of who they plan to support.
Fourteen candidates took the stage at the Citadel Theatre for a two-hour debate.
Leadership candidate Kevin O'Leary chose to skip the event, saying so many people on stage answering the same questions wouldn't allow "any real debate to transpire."
Instead, O'Leary hosted an "intimate fireside chat" around the corner at the Westin Hotel.
Danik Blanchet was curious about O'Leary's perspective and liked the idea of seeing him in front of a smaller crowd.
"I don't like to compare him to Trump — he is a little less crazy than Trump," Blanchet said following the O'Leary event. "But it's the same business background that is speaking."
"Normally, politicians are all from the same box, are all the same vision. Now him, he is not a politician, he didn't grow up in politics. He is from outside, and it is good to see what people from outside have to say."
Patrick Olsen has done his research on all the candidates but wanted to hear more from O'Leary.
"I came out tonight just to see what kind of ideas he had," Olsen said. "I knew I would get more than the debate, where they would get a few seconds each. So I thought I would take a look."
Official debate
O'Leary's rivals had to battle for audience attention.
Diane Keller said seeing all the candidates in person made things clearer.
"You were able to put ideas to their faces and their backgrounds," Keller said. "Because we had the brochure with their pictures we could take notes. So now I can build on that. Before that, it was too scattered."
Kelly Kur was there to see how candidates would deal with some of the bigger issues facing Canada.
"As gen-Xer, and kind of a millennial, some of the candidates spoke to me and some of them didn't," Kur said.
"I am also an immigrant — my mother was a political refugee. So I understand a lot of the issues surrounding that. Some of the candidates swept things under the rug, and some actually approached it."
Anton Alderliesten sported his "Make Canada Great Again" hat and said his favourite candidate stood out the most at the debate.
"I am a pretty big Maxime Bernier fan, so he is obviously going to stand out quite a bunch," he said.
"Most other people had a lot of staunch views on very conservative things, which is going to play well to their Edmonton voting base."
The Conservatives will pick their new leader on May 27.
