THAT'S DEBATABLE! Try our latest election quiz
Today and Thursday, five federal party leaders meet for their official election debates prior to voting day Sept. 20. Our debaters' quiz, created by Arthur Milnes, sets you up for the big events.
1)
Which future prime minister, heavily involved in the debating club while a university undergraduate in Nova Scotia, took on parliamentary legend Paul Martin Sr. during a model parliament?
2)
Which national party leader became the first member of a visible minority to participate in televised debates in a national election? (And when?)
3)
Which future Ontario political leader and Canadian diplomat famously debated a U.S. senator by the name of John F. Kennedy when the latter visited Toronto before he became president?
4)
Which future prime minister, then a university student involved in his school's debating club, went down to defeat when debating a future U.S. senator from Texas?
5)
Which journalist, moderating a nationally televised national leaders' debate, broke the tension between the combatants just before the cameras went live by asking them all to send birthday wishes to the journalist's mother?
6)
This rookie Liberal MP from Newfoundland heckled parliamentary legend John Diefenbaker during a debate in the Commons, leading to one of the truly great and legendary responses from Diefenbaker.
7)
Future U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon famously squared off in the first-ever U.S. nationally televised leaders' debates in 1960. North of the border, when was Canada's first national leaders' debate broadcast on television?
8)
Which national party leader, well before the age of television — lucky for him! — reportedly vomited on stage during a debate with another party's representative?
9)
What do former prime minister Kim Campbell and former NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin have in common?
10)
Which two Fathers of Confederation, during a legislative debate pre-1867, had to be forcefully separated from one other for fear of a physical fight breaking out between them?
BONUS QUESTION:
11)
This future governor general served as the moderator of two nationally televised leaders' debates in federal campaigns. Who was it?
Arthur Milnes, of Kingston, is a public historian and journalist whose 13 published books include studies of Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Arthur Meighen, R.B. Bennett, John N. Turner and Brian Mulroney.