Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh, Blanchet face-off in 1st debate of election 2021

Four leaders will face off tonight in the first televised debate of the federal election campaign.

The French debate on TVA, one of Quebec’s most-watched networks, comes at the mid-point of the campaign and could prove crucial to the outcome on Sept. 20.

Only four leaders — the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau, the Conservatives’ Erin O’Toole, the Bloc Quebecois’ Yves-Francois Blanchet and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh — will take part.

The Green party’s Annamie Paul and the Peoples’ party’s Maxime Bernier were not invited to participate.

The TVA debate was seen as pivotal in the 2019 campaign.

Then-Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s evasiveness on the issues of abortion and medical assistance in dying was widely seen as halting early Conservative momentum, ultimately enabling Trudeau’s Liberals to eke out a minority win.

The performance of Blanchet, a newcomer to federal politics at the time, was also credited with giving new life to the Bloc Quebecois, which helped rob Trudeau of a second majority mandate.

The TVA debate is in addition to two official debates organized by the Leaders’ Debates Commission. The official debates are scheduled to take place next week.

Those debates will include the leaders of the five major parties. The debate in English will air on Sept. 9 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET and the French-language debate will air the previous day — Sept. 8 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.

Both events will be held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

Global News will provide live coverage of the English-language debate on the Global News site, on our National 24/7 news stream, on the Global TV app, on YouTube, and on Facebook.

The topics for both debates will be announced on Sept. 6. The questions will be formulated by participant journalists based on concerns affecting Canadians.

Paul will participate in those debates, but Bernier, who didn’t meet the independent commission’s criteria for participation, will not.

The TVA debate involves a series of face-to-face encounters between two leaders at a time, allowing for sharper and longer exchanges.

Tonight’s two-hour debate begins at 8 p.m. ET.

— with files from Global News

by The Canadian Press