So I attended the Langara Dialogues Vancouver mayoral debates the other night. It was the first official debate between Peter Ladner of the NPA and Gregor Robertson of Vision Vancouver for the spot of Mayor of Canada’s third most populous city.

I won’t do a recap of the debates – Frances Bula, one of the three journalists on the experts question panel, had a very good post on her blog basically running down the whole event.

I will say though that I was quite surprised at how poor Gregor Robertson is at public speaking. You know, I’ve talked with him up close and he seemed very easy going, so maybe it’s because he’s in front of a huge audience that he chokes. I had assumed he would be a great orator due to the numerous comparisons to Obama – I thought wrong.

That’s not to say he’s a terrible public speaker. I just had high expectations. He does speak of broad, inclusive, inspirational change at city hall. It’s just that he stumbles along the way many times, and doesn’t come off as too passionate about these topics.

Peter Ladner, on the other hand, did seem very comfortable in the public speaking sector. He didn’t really stumble, although on several questions, he beat around the bush and didn’t provide clear answers.

Ladner’s one advantage, and it showed during the debates, is his knowledge of city hall and regional politics. It seems to be something Gregor is still learning, but is this arena, Ladner was the winner in my opinion.

Gregor’s camp at the debates was a bit larger, and was quite apparently a much younger and energetic crowd than that of Ladner’s. If Gregor and Vision can continue to touch voters, new and old, in the way they’ve been so far, I think it will be the only thing that brings them over the top here. If they don’t manage to pull it off, Ladner will scoop the big wig seat at city hall – the NPA has a very strong base.

One thing to note was that their answers were quite similar, over and over again. They want to solve homelessness and affordable housing, they want to address sustainability and climate change, they want to develop the arts and culture of the city…

It bodes well for Vancouver that both candidates are on the same page and it’s clear that the issues will be attacked by whomever gets voted mayor. The question is then on, what differentiates the two men, and, on what basis should Vancouverites then be voting for their mayor?