Amongst the top qualities and abilities I want the leader of my country are:
- ability to negotiate
- ability to manage and work with others
- ability to strategise
Being a strong public debater doesn’t seem to me to directly be a strong qualification for governing.
In that respect I’m not convinced the leadership debates in the way they are formatted will give us any useful information about who we should vote for. Instead they will mislead us into believing personality and polemical speeches are things we should care about most.
They aren’t.
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t be testing the parties and their leadership, but the importance attached to the leadership debates is bizarre.