Lisa Raitt, the early years

This is quite possibly the national television debut of Lisa Raitt and a fine example of her kind of political brilliance. 

In the span of a few minutes she links her candidacy to the advancement of women, lauds a former leader of the NDP, dodges a question about the number of female candidates running for the Conservative party, uses a hostage situation in Regina to promote her party’s crime policies, asserts her status as a mother, pledges her love of community, invokes the family, employs the phrase "Canadian fabric," laments the toxicity of discourse on the Internet, references her children half a dozen times, gets in a parting shot at her Liberal rival and thoroughly outclasses the Nobel-winning environmentalist on the other side of the split screen.

Full clip after the jump.