UPDATE:
On the morning of Wednesday, April 16th, the Leaders’ Debates Commission made the decision to rescind the Green Party of Canada’s invitation, so the party’s co-leader Jonathan Pedneault will no longer be participating in the debates.
This decision was made because the Commission determined that the Greens did not meet two out of three of the criteria to participate.
Read more about their invitation being rescinded here.
—original:
Canada’s federal election is less than two weeks away now, and this week, the major parties’ leaders will be facing off in two debates.
The French-language debate will be held on Wednesday, April 16th, whereas the English debate will be on Thursday, April 17th.
The leaders who will face off against one another are Liberal leader Mark Carney, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.
To take part in the debate, the above leaders had to meet two-out-of-three criteria set out by the Leaders’ Debates Commission, which are: by holding a seat in the House of Commons when the election was called, their party having a national polling average of at least four per cent by the end of March or by having candidates in at least 90% of federal ridings at the beginning of April.
Themes of the debate
Being that there are two debates, in two languages and the debates will be moderated by different individuals, there will be some differences.
Radio-Canada’s Patrice Roy will be moderating the French debate.
Roy will ask the four candidates questions regarding the trade war with the United States, how to lower the cost of living, climate and energy policies, national identity and retaining sovereignty as well as immigration stances and foreign affairs.
Meanwhile the English debate will be moderated by TVO’s Steve Paikin.
He will question the four candidates and party leaders on crisis management, public safety and security, tariffs and other threats to Canada, navigating the rising cost of living and lastly climate and energy.
CBC News will be live broadcasting the English debate on their website, as well as their YouTube page.
Additionally, CBC will be broadcasting the French debate on their Youtube page with English translation.
Both the English and French debates will be 120 minutes, uninterrupted, and will be formatted as open debates.
In an open debate, leaders will be able to interact with one another, while the moderator will be tasked with intervening, should the debate get too heated or off-topic.
