When
On Monday, Oct. 7, six federal party leaders faced off in an English-language debate in front of a non-partisan live audience at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.
On Thursday, Oct. 10, the same leaders will participate in a French-language debate 8-10 p.m. ET.
How to watch/listen to the French debate:
- East Cree on or
- Denesuline on or
- (French)
Themes for the French debate:
- Economy and finance
- Environment and energy
- Foreign policy and immigration
- Identity, ethics and governance
- Services to citizens
The leaders will be asked questions submitted by Canadians as well as from the journalists moderating the debates.
The debates are produced and distributed by the nine media outlets that make up the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, with additional distribution from other partners.
We acknowledge the support of interpreters in sign languages, official languages and Indigenous languages, for services provided through the Translation Bureau and Public Services and Procurement Canada.
Where
Both events will be held in front of a non-partisan live audience at the in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.
How to watch/listen:
The debates are produced and distributed by the nine media outlets that make up the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, with additional distribution from other partners.
This page will be updated with links to streams as they become available.
REPLAY THE ENGLISH DEBATE:
Themes for the English debate:
- Affordability and economic insecurity
- National and global leadership
- Indigenous issues
- Polarization, human rights and immigration
- Environment and energy
This data illustration features the 150 words that came up the most in questions submitted by Canadians for the English leaders' debate.
Who:
- Liberal Leader
- Conservative Leader
- NDP Leader
- Bloc Québécois Leader
- Green Party Leader
- People's Party of Canada Leader
The leaders' parties had to meet two out of three requirements set by the federal . All participation order in the debates will be decided by draw to ensure fairness.
Moderators
The moderators come from each of the media organizations in the Canadian Debate Production Partnership, and have deep experience in news or politics coverage.
From left to right: Susan Delacourt, Dawna Friesen, Althia Raj, Lisa LaFlamme and Rosemary Barton. (Photo credit: CDPP)
In the English debate, distinct sections of the two-hour event were guided by the moderators:
- , Ottawa bureau chief, Toronto Star
- , national anchor, Global News
- , Ottawa bureau chief, HuffPost Canada
- Lisa LaFlamme, chief news anchor, Â鶹´«Ã½
- , chief correspondent of political coverage and live specials, CBC News
The French debate is moderated by from Radio-Canada with the participation of:
- , head of politics bureau, ³¢â€™a³¦³Ù³Ü²¹±ô¾±³Ù&±ð²¹³¦³Ü³Ù±ð;
- , National Assembly reporter, Le Soleil
- , parliamentary correspondent, Le Devoir
- , editor-in-chief, La Presse
Federal party leaders will also be answering questions from the Canadian public. Below is a graphical illustration of the most common words in those submitted questions, which were received this summer.
How the debate producer was chosen
In 2018, the government announced to standardize a transparent process of organizing the leaders' debates.
of the resulting Leaders' Debate Commission, led by former governor general David Johnston, is to make the debates a more reliable and stable element of federal election campaigns, and to ensure the debates are as accessible as possible on a variety of platforms.
In May, the commission issued a , seeking bidders to produce the English and French debates. Nine media outlets came together to form the Canadian Debate Production Partnership and successfully won the contract to produce the two events.
The Canadian Debate Production Partnership is comprised of:
- Â鶹´«Ã½
- and the Torstar chain
- and
- .
These are the additional distribution partners:
- Groupe Capitales Médias
- CHCH-TV
- Cable 14-Hamilton
- Rogers Media
- CityNews
- CSPAN
