Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.
Leaders set to fight each other — and the Habs — for Francophones' attention at debate tonight
MONTREAL — Leaders of the Conservative party , Bloc Québécois and NDP will be trying to steal Francophones’ support from the Liberals tonight during the election campaign’s only French-language debate.
For the first time since the start of the campaign, Liberal Leader Mark Carney , Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre , Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will share a stage for the first of two debates at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault was expected to join the debate until the organizing commission gave him the boot on the morning of the event, saying the party wasn’t running enough candidates to be eligible .
The topics expected to be debated are cost of living, energy and climate, the Canada-U.S. trade war, identity and sovereignty as well as immigration and foreign affairs. The clash will be moderated by Radio-Canada anchor Patrice Roy.
The debate occurs just two days before the beginning of early voting on Friday and less than two weeks before election day on April 28.
The French debate is a key platform for parties looking to shore up support in seat-rich Quebec. A new Postmedia-Leger poll published Wednesday suggests that with 40 per cent support in Quebec, Carney’s Liberals are dominating the Bloc Québécois (25 per cent) and the Conservatives (23 per cent).
That means Carney, who is the least comfortable in French of the four, is likely to be in every other party leaders’ sights that night.
But the Leger poll also suggests that the five leaders are fighting over a surprisingly small pool of undecided voters. Only 20 per cent of Quebec respondents said the debate would affect how they vote, a number that falls to 17 per cent nationally.
The leaders will also be facing off against the Montreal Canadiens NHL team for Quebecers’ attention in the second hour of the debate.
The French debate was originally scheduled for 8 p.m. but was moved forward two hours after the NDP and Bloc Québécois complained that the schedule conflicted with the Habs game at 7 p.m.
If the Canadiens win that game, the venerated team is guaranteed the last wildcard spot in the NHL playoffs.
“We’re asking people — especially in Quebec — to choose between a critical democratic debate and cheering on the Habs in a must-win game. This kind of political discussion shouldn’t compete with something that means so much to so many,” Singh said Tuesday.
National Post
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.