Leaders debate: French event draws out spirited exchanges on pipelines, immigration — and Trump | CBC (2025)

Quebec overlooked in favour of Ontario: Blanchet

Blanchet responded to a question about how Quebec would face Trump if it were its own country, as his party advocates.

"I believe that we have to build alliances between equals," Blanchet said, noting Canada is already looking to strengthen relationships with allies around the world.

He said he knows Quebec won't become a country "in the coming months, but the idea is that the Quebec economy is different from the Canadian economy."

The Bloc leader repeated a grievance he brought up during the debate, which is that he believes there is too much priority given to Ontario in Canada.

Blanchet said Quebec has paid tariffs on lumber for years, but that Carney was promising the Ontario auto industry $2 billion in relief as soon as Trump announced tariffs.

"So far all we have seen is efforts being deployed to protect the Ontario economy, which is the way Canada defines itself," he said.

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Split screens

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High consumption of oil ‘destroying the whole planet’

Blanchet is up last. Answering a journalist, Blanchet said he’s not a “fanatic” against oil and maintained that high oil consumption is costly for families and “destroying the whole planet.”

“The denial of the reality of climate change since the beginning of this campaign and the change of heart of Mr. Carney, who decided to be more conservative than Mr. Poilievre, is very harmful for our environment,” Blanchet said.

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Poilievre says he would undo Online Streaming Act

Poilievre said he would repeal Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which requires platforms to spend millions investing in Canadian content and creators. His party has argued that the legislation will have the impact of censoring what Canadians see online.

His assertion about being the defender of the press comes despite being the leader with the most restrictive campaign stops (he only takes four media questions per day, with no followups) and promising to defund the English-language public broadcaster.

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Poilievre does something rare and takes followup questions

When it was Poilievre’s time to take questions from the media, he did something he hasn’t done on the campaign so far: take followup questions.

Media access to Poilievre’s campaign has been tightly controlled. Unlike with other party leaders, the media is limited to asking Poilievre four questions with no followups, and party officials decide which reporters ask questions.

But the debate commission has different rules.

“We are the only party that is willing to protect freedom of the press, of all the media,” he said, taking a question from Rebel News.

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Canada should suspend STCA, Singh says

Singh was asked whether he would be in favour of abolishing the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. The agreement allows both countries to turn back asylum seekers, with the assumption that Canada and the U.S. have similar immigration systems.

There are exceptions to the agreement, though, which were changed by Trudeau and former president Joe Biden in 2023. Now, asylum seekers crossing on foot have to manage not to be found by authorities for 14 days before making their claim, unless they're underage or have direct family members in the country.

Singh said he maintains his position that Canada should suspend the agreement with the States due to the Trump administration's apparent human rights violations.

"We're talking about a dangerous situation and we should respond with compassion," the NDP leader said.

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Singh refuses to answer questions from Rebel News

One question from the far-right media outlet Rebel News was about pensions … and Trudeau … and marginalizing conservatives. (It was long.)

Hecklers in the media could be heard telling the speaker to get to the point and wrap her speech up.

Singh said he won’t answer questions from Rebel News, which he says spreads misinformation and disinformation. When a second Rebel questioner got the mic, a similar scene played out.

The moderator also asked reporters to keep questions short to fit in as many as possible.

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It all came back to health care for Singh tonight

You may have noticed that Singh continually tried to pivot tonight to talking about health care, even though it wasn’t one of the topics of the debate.

He never said it explicitly, but Singh was clearly trying to explain to Canadians why he propped up Trudeau’s Liberal minority government despite its deep unpopularity in its final years. Namely, the NDP was key in introducing dental care and national pharmacare.

Singh also repeatedly tied public health care to Canadian identity whenever Trump’s threats to sovereignty came up.

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Singh defends not yet releasing a costed platform

None of the major parties have released a costed platform yet to show how they would pay for their big promises. Both the Liberals and Conservatives have said theirs are coming soon, but the NDP has been less definitive.

During his turn speaking to reporters after the debate, Singh insisted he’s already laid out a lot of the ways he would pay for increased investments — namely by cutting fossil fuel subsidies and eliminating government reliance on external consultants.

He also repeated his promise to give the Canada Revenue Agency greater breadth to go after individual Canadians and corporations who store their money in international tax havens.

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Right-wing outlet asks about gender

Carney’s press conference ended after an exchange with a reporter from True North, a conservative media outlet.

The reporter asked Carney how many genders there are (“in terms of sex, there are two,” he responded), and then asked if Carney believes that "biological women have the right to their own spaces."

The Liberal leader faltered for a bit before saying, “as a general objective, yes,” then adding that his government values all Canadians for who they are “and will continue to do so.”

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