Debate newbies to square off in leaders forum

The stakes will be high when the cameras start rolling on tonight's partyleaders debate.

For the first time in any of their political careers, the leaders of four provincial parties seeking to form the next Alberta government will appear in a televised debate.

• Alberta Votes coverage
• Watch our live blog of the election debate

These debate newbiesthe PC'sJim Prentice, Brian Jean of theWildrose, theNDP'sRachel Notley and David Swann of theLiberals will have 90 minutesto show Albertans why they deserve supportand perhaps why Albertans should care about this election.

"None of these people have been in this situation before," notedpollster Bruce Cameron.

"Given all the elections that certainly I've covered in Alberta, this has to rank up there as one of the most important debates that's ever been held."

The debate, the only planned television debate so far,comes at the mid-point ofthe campaignone thatpollsters are now sayingappears to bea three-horse race between the PCs, Wildrose andNDP.

"People will start to focus in on who is the best person to lead the province over the next four years," said Cameron.

Debate performances have been known to make or break acampaign.All leaders will want to portray themselves as heading the party with the mostmomentum coming out of thedebate, as they enterthe final stretch of the campaign.

On Wednesday, all four leaders cut back on their campaigning time to focus on debate preparations.

Pressure cooker?

Greg Gazin, with Edmonton's New Entrepreneurs Toastmasters Club, said the leaders cannot rely solely on showing up to the debate armed witha mission and a vision.

"You need to be able to communicate that in a short period of time," he said.

Hecharacterized thedebate as a "pressure cooker."

Gazin said that he, like other viewers at home, willbe watching the leaders' body language, gauging whether their message issincere and who would make the best leader.

Thedebate will airfrom 6:30-8 p.m. on Global TV andShaw TV.

CBC willprovidelive analysis of the debate.