Mark Carney gave an uneasy smile.

Fifteen minutes in, it was a pile-on, and Carney was at the bottom of it.

The Liberal Prime Minister looked a bit tired, and he displayed a bit of exasperation. It mattered, too: the experts say that most viewers watch only the first 20 minutes or so of a political debate, and then they change the channel to White Lotus.

But Carney was responding to attacks in English, and the first segment was about the economy, too: at that point, the Grit boss was figuratively swaddled in a warm blanket, in his total comfort zone. As a former central bank governor, it was a world Carney knew the best. It showed.

In that first segment, Carney fired off some quotable quotes: “We have to have control of our economic destiny.” And: “We can give ourselves more than Donald Trump can ever take away.”

You could almost picture those words slapped onto a Liberal campaign ad – and, actually, you have: Carney has uttered variations on those themes over and over in this election contest. So, too, his favourite defensive line when under siege: “My record is a month long as Prime Minister.” He says that a lot. And: “Catalytic.” He invokes Trump’s name a ton, too. And: “Three points.” He loves his three points.

It’s easy to forget that Carney has been in the big leagues of politics for only a few months. Whether you like him or not, he jumped into the deep end of the pool, and he didn’t drown. Carney’s hidden superpower, we’ve learned, is to be boring and pedantic, and to somehow exceed expectations.

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The French-language debate: Brian Lilley and I watched so you didn’t have to.

Some of my Kinsellian debate rules: people don’t watch debates to have their minds changed – they watch to have their choice ratified. By that standard, Mark Carney did what he had to do. He went into the debate ahead of the others, and that is unlikely to change after the French debate.

Another rule: TV is about pictures, not words. Carney occasionally looked a bit furtive and off-balance – while Pierre Poilievre looked the most at ease. Poilievre looked, dare we say it, Prime Ministerial.

A third Kinsellian rule: voters in their living rooms are the audience – not the moderator or the other leaders. Poilievre did best on that score, and he addressed the camera most often. He wasn’t as angry he is so often in the House of Commons, too. He was calm but assertive.

My take on each contestant:

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What would Jesus do?

Well, if He ran Elections Canada, He probably wouldn’t do what Elections Canada is doing this year. Which is conduct advance polls on some of the holiest days of the year, for Christians and Jews alike.

For Christians, the holiest days of the year are Good Friday (when Christ was crucified and died) and Easter Sunday (when He rose from the dead). For Jews, the Sabbath is always holy, and the Ten Commandments require that it be a day of rest – while Passover is holy, too (and commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt).

Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Passover and the Sabbath: for Christians and Jews, those days are among the most holy, most hallowed days in the calendar year. And, as noted, the Ten Commandments – observed by Christians and Jews alike – decrees that the observant must always remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Per Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work.”

That’s a quote from God, which is a pretty authoritative source. But Stéphane Perrault, who has been Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer since 2018, is perhaps unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments. He, with the power bestowed on him by Parliament, decided to hold advance polls on April 18, 19, 20 and 21. Literally, Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Holy Week.

It’s not like Perrault had no choice. His own web site says the following: “The Canada Elections Act currently grants the Chief Electoral Officer the discretion to recommend to the government an alternate day for the general election if the CEO is of the opinion that the date is not suitable, including by reason of its being in conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance.”

There can’t be many days less “suitable” for advance polls than Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, can there? Election day is important, advance polls less so. Perrault was deciding when advance polls should take place – and he chose days that, for most observant Christians and Jews, are a violation of their faith.

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The first rule of fight club: don’t talk about fight club.

The second rule of fight club: don’t talk about fight club.

The third rule: if you break the first or second rule, Warren will fire your ass, and you will never work in politics again.

Yours Truly ran many war rooms for Jean Chretien and Dalton McGuinty between 1992 and 2011. We did okay in those campaigns.

On day one of every campaign, when all of my fresh-faced war room charges were still well-rested and still committed to regular bathing, I would relate the three above rules. It was a ritual, always observed.

It wasn’t because I was a fan of David Fincher’s 1999 cult film – although I did like his cinematic social satire quite a bit. I recited the three rules because they could spell the difference between the campaign’s victory or defeat.

My war roomers weren’t allowed to tell spouses or significant others about what they did on the campaign. They weren’t allowed to say anything on social media. In particular, if a member of the news media approached them with a microphone – and that happened a few times – they were to be as silent as a POW.

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