Four moments that mattered during the federal leaders’ debate

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This article was published 09/09/2021 (1721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Liberal party’s record in government and what its rivals would do differently were dissected from numerous angles in a raucous debate Thursday night.

Here are four key moments:

“I won’t take lessons on caucus management from you.”

When Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green party Leader Annamie Paul debated sexual misconduct in the military, Paul swiftly attacked Trudeau’s claim to be a feminist. If he was, she said, he wouldn’t have sidelined women in his caucus and cabinet — a reference to two former cabinet ministers and one former MP.

Trudeau struck back, telling Paul he’d take no lessons from her — a reference to the infighting within the Green party that nearly saw Paul deposed just months after becoming the leader.

Paul alluded to needing to crawl over broken glass to get to the debate stage Thursday night, and fielded questions about the issue several times over the course of the evening as she tossed zinger after zinger at her rivals.

“If you want to get the Michaels home, you do not simply lob tomatoes across the Pacific.”

Foreign policy has played a limited role in this federal election campaign, with two exceptions: the collapse of Afghanistan and Canada’s efforts to rescue thousands of people from there, and the ongoing detentions of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has taken a hard line on China for years, and has called for harsh sanctions against Chinese officials in response to the case of the two Michaels, as they are known.

But beyond sanctions, he’s advanced few ideas on how he’d bring the Michaels home. Now that he’s within striking distance of the Prime Minister’s Office, he’s been facing more questions on what, exactly, he’d do.

Those came again tonight during the debate as O’Toole repeated his allegation that Trudeau has not worked hard enough to secure their release.

Trudeau tossed the barb out at O’Toole while noting that he’s got all of Canada’s G7 allies onside, and that other like-minded countries have raised the issue with Chinese officials.

“You’re talking about the future, let’s talk about right now.”

Trudeau spent much of the night defending his record, and the debate got particularly heated on the topic of climate change, which came up in several pointed questions.

One testy exchange came between Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, both of whom are making a political play for progressive voters.

Trudeau recently upgraded Canada’s emissions target to at least 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, but the Liberals have been hammered for the fact they’re nowhere near the path to achieving it.

It was on that point that Singh needled Trudeau, saying his future plan is one thing, but he’s not doing enough now.

“I will lead the watchdogs”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet played a spoiler role, acknowledging he has no interest in running the country, complaining he wasn’t given enough time, and pushing back against accusations of systemic racism in his province.

A key theme in the debate, however, was why Trudeau called the election at all, given the pandemic and the fact his minority government was functioning. O’Toole, Singh and Paul each took him to task over this; Trudeau responded by, among other things, blasting O’Toole for saying he wants to see 90 per cent of Canadians vaccinated against COVID-19, but can’t even say that 90 per cent of his caucus has been vaccinated.

From Blanchet’s perspective, none of his rivals deserve to lead a majority government, and he offered to be the watchdog over another minority Parliament.

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz