Not that Ignatieff needs my debate advice

I have two pieces of advice for Michael Ignatieff for Tuesday's debate:

Harper will probably stoop to the tactic of attempting to reinforce the image of Ignatieff that has been conjured up in the months of Conservative attack ads. If I were Iggy and Harper employed that tactic, I would say to Harper that "Ignatieff" isn't the issue, whereas the real issues and the ones that affect Canadians lives. I would go on to say that given the constrained amount of time these are the issues that should be debated, but that if Harper wants to debate other off topic matters there would be plenty of time to do that too, if Harper were willing to make good on his one on one debate with Ignatieff. Like maybe 90 minutes in length mano-a-mano?

Harper will no doubt attempt to spin one lie if not another, like defending the cost of F35 fighter jets by saying that Canada is exempt from any cost over-runs or that the Auditor General's report on the excessive overspending at the G8 is wrong or some such other thing. To whatever lie Harper attempts to spin, as Ignatieff, I would not get bogged down into the details of that particular Harper lie as the means to refute it, since that would simply devolve the argument into a "he said, she said" kind of thing, but rather I would sit back and in effect laugh at whatever nonsense Harper was attempting to pull off and throw back at him (and more importantly the viewing Canadian public) the generic observation that defines Harper's government when it comes to speaking the truth, which is Harper's mantra (courtesy if Tom Flanagan) that "It doesn't have to be true, it just has to sound plausible" I would go on and condemn Harper for running a government that abides by such a pathetic standard for speaking the truth and the contempt that such a mindset represents toward the Canadian people and to democracy in Canada, and then go on to say how a Liberal government would be different and the changes it would enshrine to achieve greater democracy and openness.