It wasn’t the nasty affair that we saw last week, but Wednesday’s Conservative leadership debate still had its moments — and sound effects! It was like a game show, and like a game show there will only be one winner.

Pierre Poilievre entered the debate as the front runner, chased by the likes of Jean Charest, Patrick Brown and Leslyn Lewis. Unlike the first debate, though, this was not a head-to-head match between Poilievre and Charest. Instead, there were entire stretches of the debate in which Poilievre could do nothing but stand on the sidelines as the audience sat riveted by the epic duel between Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison over their agreed positions on what to do with Canada’s North.

Can such a scattershot debate have much of an impact on this Conservative leadership contest?

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To discuss what happened at the debate in Edmonton, as well as chat about some of the broader implications of the ongoing Ontario provincial election campaign, I’m joined this week by the CBC’s Aaron Wherry and Shannon Proudfoot, Ottawa bureau chief for Maclean’s.

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