I must admit, that some how I got a little distracted last night, and completely missed the first 45 minutes of the debate last night, but I did manage to catch the rest. My highlights follow:

Stephen Harper:

We have five priorities. We'll get past the scandals and establish accountability in Ottawa. We'll reduce taxes starting with cutting the GST. We'll crack down on crime. We'll work with our provinces to establish a wait-times guarantee for health care, and we'll provide choice in child care to Canadian parents. It's time.

I like this platform, simple, and to the point. Nobody can argue against getting tough on crime in Canada right now, can't argue with lower-taxes, and can't argue against choice in child care.

Harper on party ethics:

We've learned in this campaign about the RCMP investigation into the income trusts. We're hearing about investigation in Options Canada. We've got the Toronto waterfront. Mr. Martin should tell us tonight; will you tell us, Mr. Martin, how many criminal investigations are going on in your government?

I love that quote, because the question was left hanging by the moderator, almost branding the question into people's minds. And, it's really a good question.

Gilles Duceppe, on Ralph Goodale and the Liberal income-trust scandal:

When you're in office, the question is not to be only in conflict of interest, but also that there's no appearance of conflict of interest, and in that case, obviously at least what we can say is that there's an appearance of conflict of interest.

The man may be the most useless politician in Canada, but he's got a point!

Harper, on personal attacks on the campaign trail:

Well, I would hope that we can avoid personal attacks. Mr. Martin's repeatedly questioned my patriotism. I've merely pointed out the fact that Mr. Martin in his business career paid his taxes outside of the country at lower tax rates.

Its tough to STOP talking out of both sides of your mouth, when you've been doing it your whole life, I suppose.