Federal Leaders' Debate 2019

When

On Monday, Oct. 7, six federal party leaders faced off in an English-language debate in front of a non-partisan live audience at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.

On Thursday, Oct. 10, the same leaders will participate in a French-language debate 8-10 p.m. ET. 

How to watch/listen to the French debate:

Themes for the French debate:

  • Economy and finance
  • Environment and energy
  • Foreign policy and immigration
  • Identity, ethics and governance
  • Services to citizens

The leaders will be asked questions submitted by Canadians as well as from the journalists moderating the debates.

The debates are produced and distributed by the nine media outlets that make up the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, with additional distribution from other partners.

We acknowledge the support of interpreters in sign languages, official languages and Indigenous languages, for services provided through the Translation Bureau and Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Where

Both events will be held in front of a non-partisan live audience at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.

How to watch/listen:

The debates are produced and distributed by the nine media outlets that make up the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, with additional distribution from other partners. 

This page will be updated with links to streams as they become available.

REPLAY THE ENGLISH DEBATE:

Themes for the English debate:

  • Affordability and economic insecurity
  • National and global leadership
  • Indigenous issues
  • Polarization, human rights and immigration
  • Environment and energy 

Federal Leaders' Debate 2019
This data illustration features the 150 words that came up the most in questions submitted by Canadians for the English leaders' debate.

Who:

The leaders' parties had to meet two out of three requirements set by the federal Leaders' Debates Commission. All participation order in the debates will be decided by draw to ensure fairness.

Moderators

The moderators come from each of the media organizations in the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, and have deep experience in news or politics coverage.

Federal Leaders debate moderators
From left to right: Susan Delacourt, Dawna Friesen, Althia Raj, Lisa LaFlamme and Rosemary Barton. (Photo credit: CDPP)

In the English debate, distinct sections of the two-hour event were guided by the moderators:

The French debate is moderated by Patrice Roy from Radio-Canada with the participation of:

French leaders debate moderators

 

Federal party leaders will also be answering questions from the Canadian public. Below is a graphical illustration of the most common words in those submitted questions, which were received this summer.

How the debate producer was chosen

In 2018, the government announced plans to set up an independent commission to standardize a transparent process of organizing the leaders' debates.

The mandate of the resulting Leaders' Debate Commission, led by former governor general David Johnston, is to make the debates a more reliable and stable element of federal election campaigns, and to ensure the debates are as accessible as possible on a variety of platforms.

In May, the commission issued a request for proposal, seeking bidders to produce the English and French debates. Nine media outlets came together to form the Canadian Debate Production Partnership and successfully won the contract to produce the two events.

The Canadian Debate Production Partnership is comprised of: 

These are the additional distribution partners: 

Canadian Debate Production Partnership logo