Host Guy A. Lepage on Tout le monde en parle.Courtesy of CBC/Radio-Canada
Asked to name something he liked about Quebec – whether a singer, or a town, or cheese – Mark Carney’s reply was Coeur de Pirate, the pseudonym of a fabulous singer but not a household name in Rockcliffe Park.
“That’s a cheese,” Guy A. Lepage, the host of Quebec’s big talk show, Tout le monde en parle, joked. Mr. Carney didn’t fall for it.
And it was a surprise that the Liberal Leader, put on the spot, was able to identify the Quebec comedy group that made Mr. Lepage famous in the 1980s, Rock et Belles Oreilles.
Maybe Mr. Carney had known the answer. Probably his staff briefed him. At any rate, he looked pleased when he spat out the right answer. Phew.
That kind of summed up his night. He passed a simplified acid-test appearance on Tout le monde en parle.
His Liberals are running ahead in the polls in Quebec and Mr. Carney himself enjoys high ratings despite his wooden French, which he again conceded is not good enough.
So perhaps it was less surprising that he dodged questions seeking his opinion on Quebec’s latest language law, Bill 96, or Bill 21, the secularism law that bars many public servants from wearing religious symbols. On the latter, he insisted that he understands the importance of secularism, and the state’s neutrality, but mostly, he said, he’s concerned about the regular use of the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights.
But most of the questions were fielded relatively comfortably, in understandable though occasionally laboured French.
What’s the difference between him and his predecessor Justin Trudeau? He said that as liberals they shared the same values.
“But I put the accent on the economy,” he said. “I put the accent on managing this crisis and building the economy. And Mr. Trudeau is less – it has to be said – is less interested in that.”
The big thing, in the end, was that Mr. Carney had shown up, and not passed up a rite of passage in Quebec electoral campaigns.
What was more surprising was the opponent who showed up.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who preceded him, was nothing like the aggressive, haranguing, sloganeering politician Canadians have seen at his campaign rallies and for most of his tenure.
On the set of Tout le monde en parle, with questioners around him and a live audience behind him, he appeared easygoing. He smiled and even laughed.
For those who know Mr. Poilievre, it was a surprisingly warm and congenial performance. And if there were francophones watching who still don’t know the Conservative Leader, it was about the best introduction he could have hoped for.
He was asked if he was a “mini Trump,” but that gave him an opportunity to explain that he wasn’t. The answer wasn’t particularly strong: his point was that Mr. Trump was raised rich and he, Mr. Poilievre, was born to a single mother and raised by two schoolteachers in modest circumstances.
But that gave him a chance to talk about his ordinary-guy suburban upbringing and just as importantly, he seemed self-effacing and cheerful as he did it, nothing like the President Donald Trump so many Canadians see as a threat.
Usually, Mr. Poilievre quickly turns every question about Mr. Trump into a no-holds-barred blistering attack on Mr. Carney, and then back to his practiced slogans. Not this time. The content wasn’t very different. He still talked about Canada being vulnerable at a time of crisis. He just didn’t turn it into pitched combat.
Mr. Lepage asked which one of his personalities was the real one – saying he’d been smiling recently but he was known for being abrasive.
Mr. Poilievre offered an explanation about his combativeness by recounting that former Parti Québécois Premier Lucien Bouchard had told him he had come from a modest background, and had to fight for everything, and when he sees people suffering he is frustrated by the politicians that caused it.
Both leaders received a more deferential treatment than the lively grilling some politicians have undergone on the show.
And unlike many of the show’s guests, they didn’t stay on set at the same time to drink a glass of wine and chat with others, because, in the words of Mr. Lepage, that wouldn’t work.
Both did their segments and got out in one piece. Mr. Carney didn’t suffer any damage, and Mr. Poilievre probably did his struggling Quebec campaign some good.