The federal Liberal Party has held its second last leadership debate in Halifax with the front runners once again trading personal barbs. Marc Garneau worked his thesis that Justin Trudeau is full of platitudes with no substance. Trudeau says he is proud of his “positive” campaign and called Garneau negative. Observers seemed to feel that the the contenders generally ducked the big issues. Michael Den Tandt, writing for Postmedia, feels Trudeau has it locked and made the cheeky suggestion that if Trudeau is ever elected Prime Minister he will behave somewhat like Stephen Harper. Said Den Tandt: “Neither Trudeau nor his people will concede this. But Grit economic policy in 2015 is liable to look something like Harper economic policy — save for tweaking and packaging. Why? Because red-meat rhetoric aside, Harper & Co. haven’t been much interested in bucking centrist public opinion, either. If popular sentiment leads policy, and sentiment is broadly centrist, then the “new” Liberal party’s policies will be broadly centrist, with a socially progressive inflection. It’s simple logic”.