"Not my fault," he said.

"Don't blame me, I'm new," she said.

"It's both of their faults," she said.

And the debate was on.

When they work, election debates can focus the issues. They can educate voters. The discussion can show the differences in ideology.

They can also be horribly cruel to candidates. Not so tonight.

The first modern televised debate that sticks in the mind is that between a youthful, tanned (thanks to make-up) John F. Kennedy and a sallow Richard Nixon. Nixon's makeup sweating away in the hot lights contrasted with the cool challenger, who would become the youngest president in U.S. history.

Then there are moments -- Reagan versus Mondale; Mulroney versus Turner. Accusatory, defining moments that signal differences in style and government. I remember watching the Reagan-Mondale debate in a bar on Chicago's north side, surrounded by twenty-somethings, hooting every time Reagan scored a point.In the faces of that youth I knew that night that America was taking a turn to the right for generations to come. The idealism of the anti-war boomers had ended.

Alas, the B.C. election debate had no defining moments. There was no knock-out blow. By now the parties apparatchiks have figured out what's at stake. Every hair is in place. The make-up perfect. The lines rehearsed. Days have been taken away from the campaigning to study the inches-thick briefing books.

Tuesday night, in one corner, it was Premier Gordon Campbell blaming it all on the ghost of NDP governments past. To judge by his vision the nineties in B.C. were a wasteland, with British Columbians fleeing for greener pastures as the socialist hordes ravaged the province.

His own record -- dodge it, ignore it, try to make voters turn the clock back. Challenged with public safety cuts he retreated to distant NDP actions on mental health. Criticized about health care he condemned the NDP for letting hospitals slide into decay.

In the other corner, NDP leader Carole James scored solid punches and put forward the only brave face she could -- my party is under new management. Forget sagging hospitals, why did the Liberals separate aging couples in their final years together, in the name of savings? How about education? Why did the Liberals download costs onto school boards and (eventually) local taxpayers?

Potentially, the spoiler in all of this was Adriane Carr, the Green Party leader, fulfilling a role not seen in the province since the demise of the real, Gordon Wilson Liberals (as opposed to the pseudo ex-Socred Liberals that Campbell now leads), and the middle-of-the-road parties (again real Liberal and Progressive Conservative) abandoned three decades ago, led by names such as Gordon Gibson, Jr. and Dr. G. Scott Wallace.

Carr's message: a pox on both their houses was the only one she could carve out in this most polarized of provinces. But other than a claim of bringing a sustainable economy to BC, Carr's was a message lost amid the two main protagonists' verbal battles. Carr occasionally managed a pot-shot at NDP leader Carole James, most often telling Gordon Campbell his government had failed British Columbians.

On issues, Campbell fixated on numbers and statistics. It's the refuge of those defending unpopular positions.

See how well we did? People earning $15,000 or less pay no income tax. Left unsaid is how much more they pay in additional government service costs.

We're spending $881 per student more than the NDP. Yes, Mr. Campbell, but how much more has been downloaded on local school boards?

Unsaid and unasked in the debate tonight was whether or not the Liberal tax cuts were really productive. Did the NDP leave the province a smoking wasteland as claimed by the current government? Just who really drove the province into the red during the past three years?

They are also issues that probably won't be answered on the campaign trail. During Campbell's very controlled campaign it is not only the Premier who has been avoiding real British Columbians. His Liberal candidates have been avoiding controversy by avoiding discussion of the issues. The on-line newspaper The Tyee reported this week that Liberals have been skipping difficult all-candidate meetings. It certainly avoids making statements that will come back to haunt you or the party -- or worse, lose you an election.

But tonight they all sounded reasonable. At times, closing ones eyes, Campbell sounded like W.A.C. Bennett-cum-Bill Bennett-cum-Bill Vander Zalm. I could have been at a 1979 campaign rally, not the supposed-defining moment of the 2005 campaign. At one point I though I heard "tough love" when I think Gordon Campbell was saying "tough choices."

But Campbell's mantra was true Socred, er Liberal: Our leadership is about being positive, not negative. We're taking this province forward.

On the other hand, Carole James sounded like Dave Barrett-cum-Mike Harcourt-cum-Glen Clark. We care. Trust us, we can run the province. We've changed. It is also the curse the NDP faces, even if they do well or promise a better government, they're somehow tainted by the right wing's message: incompetent managers.

The only damning moments came near the end when Gordon Campbell was finally challenged on broken promises. Why did he sell BC Rail after he'd promised not to during the 2001 campaign? I'm sure voters and viewers can understand that a nearly thousand-year lease is just like selling it.

Another challenge: why didn't Campbell buy into solutions for saving the Great Bear wilderness? The answer was lost in conflicting arguments.

As Carole James summarized, it's about "which promises you broke and which you're going to keep."

That's at the heart of British Columbians' doubts about the Campbell government – shown in the polls. The Liberals are ahead, 46 per cent to 39 per cent over the NDP; but they don't like Gordon Campbell and don't fully trust his government. But, so far, it appears British Columbians haven't been given enough reason to vote out the current government.

Standing in the middle tonight was a third choice: Green leader Adriane Carr. Mostly condemning Gordon Campbell and the Liberals, sometimes finding fault with the NDP.

"It's not about the left or the right," she summarized near the end of the night. But by then the debate had long passed her by.

Anton Koschany is Senior Producer of CTV W-FIVE. He also runs the network's Election Results team. Raised in Vancouver he began his journalism career there. He has covered nine B.C. premiers and has buried one.