Liberal Leader Mark Carney speaks with the media following a televised French language debate, in Montreal, on April 16.Evan Buhler/Reuters
Everyone knew going in that Mark Carney was the target.
The Liberal Leader wasn’t brilliant in Wednesday night’s French-language debate.
Sometimes it seemed like he had one hand tied behind his back, the words not forming in his mouth for him to express the thought in his head. On several occasions, he started answers that were supposed to take 35 seconds by saying “three things,” but had trouble getting out his three-point reply.
But over two hours, Mr. Carney was able to rebuff most of the efforts to scratch up his image. He didn’t let opponents get under his skin, nor did he break into the haughty tone he occasionally levelled at journalists early in his campaign. It was his first political debate, and he walked out unbloodied.
For the leader ahead in the polls, that was close enough to a win.
When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tried to tie the Liberal Leader to his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, Mr. Carney deflected.
“Mr. Poilievre isn’t Justin Trudeau,” he said. “Neither am I.”
For Mr. Carney’s opponents, it must have been frustrating that he used the “new guy” answer on several occasions. When the moderator, Patrice Roy, suggested past promises on protecting supply-management hadn’t been kept, the Liberal Leader said, “Well, it’s the first time I’m at the table.”
If this debate was the opportunity for his opponents to scuff up Mr. Carney’s so-far Teflon exterior, the job wasn’t done.
At the other end of the line of four podiums, Mr. Poilievre had clearly decided this was a night when he, too, should try to look prime ministerial, to be calm, to try to win over francophones more than bring down the Liberal Leader.
The Conservative Leader was perhaps the best at delivering a clear message – most often about tax cuts, often by looking straight into the camera.
At one point late in the debate, he did that to declare he had a message for the women watching – and promised that no abortion law would be passed by a government he led.
Mr. Poilievre’s big pitch to viewers was to cut their income taxes by 15 per cent, and he got it across like a campaign ad.
Still, Mr. Carney also got out his key point, about standing up to U.S. President Donald Trump, albeit less crisply, arguing Canada must use “overwhelming force” to respond.
And while Mr. Carney and Mr. Poilievre were trying to look prime ministerial, there were two others who didn’t have to worry about that.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were able to crash the campaign party that so far has revolved around who can fight Mr. Trump, which is a job for someone who might be prime minister.
That, and the fact that the five debate themes relegated cost-of-living and trade wars to less than half the time, meant that issues that haven’t dominated the campaign – or the messages of the two main contestants – found a place.
This debate gave Mr. Blanchet a chance to complain that Canada always wants to accept more immigrants than it has the capacity to take, and that Ottawa’s approach is out of whack with Quebec’s. He was able to talk about protecting French and accuse Mr. Carney of unfairly providing a final carbon-rebate cheque to people in the rest of Canada but not Quebec.
But the Bloc Leader often seemed like a haughty pundit sarcastically picking holes in his opponent’s ideas, and he never really bore down on his key message: that Mr. Carney favours rest-of-Canada economic interests, so the Bloc is needed to protect Quebec’s.
Mr. Blanchet was supposed to win this debate outright. He needed to win. He didn’t.
Mr. Singh, however, was able to focus on his key issue. He fought so hard to turn the debate toward the issue of health care that at one point, Mr. Roy gave him three chances to stop talking before cutting off his microphone.
The NDP Leader accused Mr. Carney and Mr. Poilievre of proposing massive cuts to health care – which both denied – and then raised the accusation again.
And strangely, Mr. Singh spent much of the evening attacking Mr. Poilievre, even though Mr. Carney’s Liberals are, according to opinion polls, running away with the NDP’s supporters.
But that four-way dynamic – with Mr. Poilievre trying to look like a prime minister and the two other leaders trying to find ways to take up space – allowed the chief target, Mr. Carney, to deflect, keep his head down and keep out of real danger.