Thursday night’s French-language leaders debate featured some of the liveliest and most heated exchanges of any so far. But like the debates that have preceded it in this election campaign, no one leader appeared to emerge victorious.
As the frontrunner in Quebec, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair was the target of the majority of the attacks Thursday night. But McGill University’s political science professor Antonia Maioni says Mulcair was able to remain “very feisty” throughout the evening.
She told CTV’s Canada AM Friday morning that it was interesting to see the NDP leader hold his ground on the issue of wearing a niqab during citizenship ceremonies. Though polls show the large majority of Quebecers oppose the niqab, Mulcair insisted no government should deprive women of their citizenship because of a face covering.
“He stuck to that line even though we know it’s not going to win or score him any votes in Quebec,” she said.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe -- easily the most experienced election debater in the room -- performed well throughout the evening, Maioni said, touching on a range of issues, including the ongoing question of Quebec sovereignty.
“Whether it was enough to inch up his numbers remains to be seen,” she said.
Still, she added that in ridings where there’s a three- or four-way competition, Duceppe may have performed well enough to swing voters to the Bloc and damage both the Liberals and the NDP.
As for Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leader stuck closely to his script on his key speaking points, Maioni said. But she said she was surprised to see Trudeau appearing uncomfortable in the French language. She also wondered why he chose not to engage in more of the exchanges.
“His liveliest interventions were on the question about sovereignty. But Mr. Trudeau was absent on the debate about the economy. He let Harper and Mulcair take all the oxygen on the room in that,” she said.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, on the other hand, was “quite effective,” in her view, in large part because he stayed out of most of the sparring so that he could hammer home his two main talking points: the economy and values, including the niqab debate.
“He was speaking to his base in Quebec, which still exists,” she said. “The Conservatives know they have to hold onto their seats in Quebec if they want to form government.”
Finally, Green Leader Elizabeth May performed well yet again, Maioni said, holding her own against the other leaders and staying on-point with her messages about the environment, health care, and the economy.
May also called the issue of the niqab a "fake debate" that has distracted Quebec voters from more important questions in this election.
“She drove home the fact that we should be talking about issues other than the niqab in a national debate with five leaders on the stage talking about the future of Canada,” Maioni said.
