Politics This Morning: federal leaders spar on key issues, offer appeals to Quebec voters at French-language debate

The five federal party leaders offered their visions for pandemic recovery, healthcare, climate change, and Indigenous reconciliation during last night’s French-language debate. After six years in government, Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was the target of most attacks, but fired back a few of his own, trying to pin Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole on a platform switch on guns and raised the specter of the Tory leader being soft on abortion rights. The most animated moment of the night was an exchange with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, who late in the debate accused the Liberal leader of telling Quebec “what to do.” The Bloc leader “constantly forgets” that Mr. Trudeau, too, is from Quebec, he quickly replied. "You don’t represent all interests in Quebec. You say you're the only Quebecer here. You're not,” said Mr. Trudeau, his voice raised. https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1435783368537485317 The two-hour evening debate was organized by the non-partisan Leaders' Debates Commission, which invited leaders from five parties to the stage at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., including Mr. Trudeau, Mr. O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Mr. Blanchet, and Green Party Leader Annamie Paul. The themes for the night included health care and the pandemic; cost of living and public finances; the environment; Indigenous issues, identity, and culture; as well as justice and foreign affairs. The party leaders frequently zeroed in on policies that would appeal to Quebec voters, as did many of the questions posed by moderator Patrice Roy, who stick-handled a mix of rapid-fire questions directed at the leaders, as well as two-way, three-way, and five-way debates that involved limited cross-talk. Aside from Mr. Blanchet, Mr. O’Toole was the leader who most repeatedly tied his comments to Quebec, promising to respect its jurisdiction and collaborate on a number of policies as a “matter of respect.” At the dissolution of Parliament in mid-August that paved the way for the election call, the majority of the province's 78 seats were split between Liberal MPs (35) and Bloc Québécois members (32), followed by 10 seats held by the Conservatives, and only one by the NDP, which entered the 2019 election with 15 seats. Mr. O’Toole touted his party’s costed platform, released only hours before the debate, saying a promise to inject $60-billion into health care over the next decade would increase the Canada Health Transfer in a “stable, predictable, and unconditional way.” (The Parliamentary Budget Office’s costing said that would equal $3.6-billion in new spending between now and 2025-26, per CBC News.) Funding promised by the other parties all comes with “strings attached,” argued Mr. Blanchet, who later said Bloc support for a budget produced by a minority government would who later said Bloc support for a budget produced by a minority government would be contingent on committing to the premiers’ demand for a $28-billion annual increase to the Canada Health Transfer from the federal government. That’s a “deal-breaker,” said Mr. Blanchet, who repeatedly said if policies from any government are good for Quebec, the Bloc would support it. Mr. O’Toole appeared vulnerable on the question of childcare, with Mr. Blanchet and Mr. Trudeau accusing his tax-credit approach as having the effect of taking funds away from the Quebec government. The Liberals are promising to build a national $10-a-day child-care program, which Mr. Trudeau said was modeled after Quebec’s system. That includes a federal transfer of about $6-billion over five years in connection with the national program. “ doesn’t understand the daycare system in Quebec,” accused Mr. Trudeau, who said that will put 37,000 new daycare spaces in the province at risk. “He says he’d rather have a tax credit for the most vulnerable families in Quebec. Those families don’t pay for daycare already in Quebec, it’s subsidized.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh taking part in one of the three-way sparring matches during the Sept. 8 French-language debate. Screengrab courtesy of CPAC Ms. Paul jumped in on the topic by asking whether the men on stage would “let a woman speak,” noting women are most affected by the policy. She questioned whether the policy would be in effect sooner if the parties did a better job to have better representation in their midst, and said it was “unfortunate” that Parliament’s last session ended prematurely, not long after the Liberal government unveiled childcare as a key budget promise. Parliament’s dissolution was a frequent topic throughout the debate, and Mr. Trudeau started on his back foot, evading a direct question posed to all leaders about whether they would honour a fixed election date and a four-year mandate if Canadians voted in another minority government. All the others answered in the affirmative, and throughout the night they questioned Mr. Trudeau’s judgment for triggering an election in a burgeoning fourth COVID-19 wave, a question that has dogged the prime minister throughout the campaign. Mr. Trudeau tried to take Mr. O’Toole to task for not supporting mandatory vaccinations, and later questioned the Conservative leader’s commitment to being pro-choice on abortion when many of his caucus vote against these rights. “It’s weak leadership, that’s what he’s offering,” said Mr. Trudeau, while Mr. O’Toole replied the prime minister would “say anything at all.” During the section on Indigenous issues and reconciliation, the leaders criticized the Liberal government for failing to live up to a promise to lift boil water advisories on First Nations. Mr. Singh said it was inexcusable First Nations still don’t have clean drinking water. “It’s not a question of capabilities, competencies; it’s a question of willpower,” said Mr. Singh, who blamed Mr. Trudeau for that lack of political will, calling it a “shame.” His party quickly fired off a press release mid-debate on that topic. The party federal leaders attended the first televised debate on Sept. 8 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. Screengrab courtesy of CPAC That makes it one debate down and one to go. The leaders will be back on television this evening at 9 p.m. for the English-language debate. As of late Wednesday evening, none had revealed their itineraries for the next day, though most spent the day-of preparing for the first debate. In other news, just ahead of last night’s debate a Federal Court judge ruled the Rebel News Network should be allowed to cover the two official federal leaders’ debates. It ordered the debates commission to grant accreditation to the Rebel News Network, which was granted an emergency hearing Tuesday after 11 staff were denied the sign-off to access the event and scrum the party leaders when the debate portion is over, according to The Canadian Press. Rebel was also denied accreditation in 2019, but won access in that case too. After the debate, Mr. Singh refused to take the outlet’s questions and Mr. Trudeau said the group is among those that “spread misinformation and disinformation” and should take “accountability for some of the polarization we’re seeing in this country.” Just a few hours ahead of the big screen, Mr. O’Toole revealed his party’s costed platform, which sets out $52.5-billion in new spending over the next five years, per CBC News, without balancing the budget books in that same period. The House of Commons will review whether or not there were problems with how the government handled the case of former Liberal MP Raj Saini, who was accused of acting inappropriately to Liberal staffers. Over the weekend, the party said Mr. Saini, who has said the allegations are false, would no longer be a candidate for Kitchener Centre, Ont. The clerk of the Commons, Charles Robert, confirmed in response to a request from Conservative incumbent Michelle Rempel Garner the office would look into the matter, and report to a parliamentary committee whether there are “shortcomings” in the MPs' workplace harassment policy, according to CBC News. The Liberal Party has called on Yves Côté, the commissioner of Canada Elections, as to whether or not the Conservative Party has been co-ordinating campaign activities with the National Firearms Association. The Tories recently shifted their platform policy on guns to say an O’Toole government would keep bans in place on all currently banned firearms in reference to a 2020 reclassification of assault-style guns. https://twitter.com/MarkGerretsen/status/1435582701529178115 Over at The Hill Times, two political analysts told our paper that Elections Canada’s move to scrap the on-campus voting program could lead to a lower turnout among young Canadians in the federal election, an outcome that will most hurt the Liberal and NDP ballot counts. The Hill Times

Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: federal leaders spar on key issues, offer appeals to Quebec voters at French-language debate

Plus, the federal leaders are back at it tonight for round two, with the two-hour English-language debate kicking off at 9 p.m.

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: federal leaders spar on key issues, offer appeals to Quebec voters at French-language debate

Plus, the federal leaders are back at it tonight for round two, with the two-hour English-language debate kicking off at 9 p.m.

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