OTTAWA – The six main Federal Party Leaders squared off for the first time during this campaign at the official English-language leaders’ Debate of the 2019 election, and the 2-hour event was a mix of personal attacks and policy deliberation.

Off the top, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was first to pivot from policy to politics, raising Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s past instances of wearing brownface and blackface in response to the very first question about foreign policy and leadership on the world stage.

“Justin Trudeau only pretends to stand up for Canada. He’s very good at pretending things,” Scheer said. “He can’t even remember how many times he put blackface on because the fact of the matter is he’s always wearing a mask.”

He went on to accuse Trudeau of “wearing a mask” when he says he is a feminist and supports Indigenous reconciliation, or champions the middle class.

Trudeau then took the opportunity in a later question to attempt to slam Scheer by comparing him to People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, saying that Bernier’s presence in the debate was “to say publicly, what Mr. Scheer thinks privately,” referring to Bernier’s often divisive policy positions.

As these kinds of jabs kept up throughout the debate, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh sought to cut through it with a few quips that seemed to be well received by the audience

“You do not need to choose between Mr. Delay and Mr. Deny,” said Singh at a moment in the debate when Trudeau and Scheer were going at it over the Liberal’s carbon tax, to the point that it was hard to hear what either was saying.

Election day is two weeks away and it’s yet to be seen whether tonight’s debate will be pivotal for the considerable number of undecided voters in what has so far been a tight race. With each leader looking to differentiate themselves to voters, the conversation was largely pitting the Liberals’ last four years against the ideas the other leaders have to do things differently.

But the opposing leaders also took time to criticize each other.

Bernier, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet took the moments they could to speak to a national audience about their policy ideas, and each leader took the one-on-one debate opportunities afforded in this format to question their opponents face-on.

Some of the back and forth between the various topics was about the increasing polarization in Canada, and finger-pointing about whose name-calling and rhetoric was negatively impacting the level of political discourse in Canada.

“We need the kind of leadership that lifts people, that doesn’t make people feel as if politics is rather disgusting and they’d rather not look at it,” said May.

As the debate pivoted to Indigenous issues, May said she was “appalled” by Scheer’s position on consulting Indigenous peoples on natural resource development, though Scheer defended his stance that Indigenous groups shouldn’t be able to have a veto.

When Singh’s time came he evoked the Liberal government’s SNC-Lavalin scandal, chastising Trudeau for fighting “hard to keep SNC-Lavalin out of the courts,” while the federal government, as was recently announced, is appealing the ruling ordering compensation for First Nations children denied welfare services.

“That is wrong, how could someone do that?” said Singh.

When the conversation pivoted to Quebec’s secularism Bill 21, Singh said that “every single day” of his life “is fighting a bill like Bill 21,” in an effort to defend why his party has yet to say that it would intervene in the ongoing court challenge.

“Every single day of my life is challenging people who think that you can’t do things because of the way you look,” Singh said, but did not go further on his position on the law, which bans public service workers from wearing or displaying religious symbols or clothing while at work.

During the affordability-focused portion of the debate, May brought up Scheer’s pledge to cut foreign aid spending by 25 per cent, calling it “short-term, misguided, greedy and selfish.”

In response, Scheer said it is “not greedy” to put money back in Canadians’ pockets, and began citing his now oft-repeated pocketbook pledges, including implementing a “universal tax credit.”

‘An opportunity to hear from these leaders directly’

Tonight’s debate, and the French-language debate happening on Wednesday, are hosted and broadcast by a new partnership of 10 news media organizations called the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, which includes CTV News, and was organized by the Leaders’ Debate Commission.

The debate was moderated by five journalists, including CTV News anchor Lisa LaFlamme, and the federal party leaders also answered questions from the Canadian public.

The five main themes of tonight’s debate were: affordability and economic insecurity; national and global leadership; Indigenous issues; polarization, human rights and immigration; and environment and energy.

“Leaders debates give us the opportunity to hear from these leaders directly unedited, and unfiltered,” said Debate Commissioner David Johnston in his pre-debate remarks.

“Too often, we focus on the things that separate us as Canadians… But this is an opportunity for the country to come together to gain an understanding about the issues at hand, what they mean to people across the country.”

The debates have been made available on TV, radio, and online platforms in English, French, Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Punjabi, Plains Cree, Inuktitut, Eastern Cree, Ojibway, American Sign Language and Quebec Sign Language. There are viewing parties happening across the country.

In advance of the debate, there was some pre-showdown posturing, but each leader spent the majority of day 27 of the election hunkered down doing debate prep with their campaign teams.

Upon their arrival, each leader was greeted by scores of supporters lining the entrance with signs and other props, however, not every leader went over to greet the crowd or stop for media questions on their way in.

When the leaders entered the stage they took their places without shaking hands.

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