Federal party leaders square off in first French-language debate of the election campaign

The main party leaders appeared on stage for the first time Thursday in a French-language debate that was at times raucous as the four men fiercely competed for votes in a province that could very well decide who is Canada's next prime minister.

The two-hour debate, hosted by TVA, a major broadcaster in Quebec, was a chance for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to regain some of the momentum he had earlier this summer when polls showed he had a massive lead in the country's second largest province.

CBC's Poll Tracker still has Trudeau and the Liberals ahead of others but the margin has narrowed.

The first half of the debate was dominated by talk of the COVID-19 pandemic as Trudeau asked voters to return his party to government after its stewardship of the country during this 19-month long health crisis.

Trudeau presented himself as a vaccine champion, the man who secured enough doses to get everyone eligible for a shot fully vaccinated by July, and the leader who will keep people safe in the fourth wave of this pandemic by pushing mandatory vaccines for federal public servants and the travelling public.

Trudeau said O'Toole can't be trusted "because he won't even force his candidates" to get a shot while out on the campaign trail.

O'Toole, who is opposed to vaccine mandates, said Trudeau was intent on dividing the country during a health crisis. O'Toole said he's not against vaccines â€" O'Toole and his wife had their shots and filmed the process to encourage supporters to get theirs â€" but he said, "We shouldn't force Canadians. It's a decision for individual Canadians on a health matter."

O'Toole has proposed deploying rapid tests instead of demanding shots for everyone who takes a train or plane. "We must find reasonable accommodations for people. We have to work together without a lot of division," O'Toole said.

Trudeau grilled on election call

Trudeau's three opponents piled on Trudeau for calling the election with COVID-19 cases on the rise.

Trudeau's main challenger in Quebec, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, said it was irresponsible to plunge the country into a campaign when "Parliament was working well" to pass COVID-19 aid and other bills. O'Toole said Canadians shouldn't be heading to the polls with the country still in the throes of a health crisis, with B.C. beset by wildfires and Afghanistan grappling with a Taliban takeover.

Trudeau hit back saying it was hypocritical for Blanchet to criticize an election call when he and Bloc MPs voted four times against key government bills that, if they had been defeated in the Commons, would have prompted an election earlier this year when COVID-19 case counts were worse.

Trudeau spent most of the night on the attack against O'Toole, his main opponent in the national race, who has swung from also-ran to front-runner status in the first three weeks of the federal election campaign.

O'Toole hit over two-tier healthcare

Trudeau and O'Toole sparred over health care funding with the Liberal leader raising O'Toole's past support for more for-profit health care in Canada to help address some of the current system's failings, claiming the Conservative leader would bring about "two-tier" health care, which, Trudeau said, would only benefit the rich.

Trudeau repeatedly pressed O'Toole to say if he'd allow private interests to take over more parts of the system, but the Conservative leader dodged giving a direct answer.

"Two-tier â€" that's not what Quebecers or Canadians want," Trudeau said.

O'Toole said he unequivocally supports a public and universal system and, rather than end the current system, he'll pump "an historic amount without conditions" into provincial coffers to help them make improvements. O'Toole said the Liberals have been twisting his words â€" Twitter branded a video recently posted by Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland "manipulated media â€" and "Canadians deserve better than that."

The debate was a test for the two non-native French speakers: O'Toole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. O'Toole's spoken French has improved since he contested the Conservative leadership race last year and Singh is more fluent than he was in the 2019 campaign. But at times, both struggled to fully understand what the TVA moderator, Pierre Bruneau, was asking. 

O'Toole spent all of Thursday in debate prep with his French-speaking staff, eschewing all campaign events in advance of the debate. Singh rented a food truck and handed poutine out to voters in Montreal while Trudeau ordered smoked meat sandwiches on Montreal's St-Laurent Boulevard.

Singh, who, as leader in the 2019 election, saw his party's once sizeable Quebec contingent reduced to just one seat, made a direct appeal to the province's progressive voters. While the NDP's policy book mirrors some of what the Liberals have also pitched, Singh said he'd actually implement the policies he is promising, while Trudeau has long promised but failed to deliver.

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