LILLEY: Poised Poilievre pushes for economic independence at French debate

Article content

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took his message of economic sovereignty into the French-language leaders debate on Wednesday.

As each leader tried to make their case to francophone voters mostly based in Quebec, Poilievre pushed one message — ensure Canada is economically independent.

Time and again, Poilievre said that the key to pushing back against the economic threats from the United States is to make Canada stronger.

“The way we will restore that sovereignty is to make our economy stronger,” Poilievre said.

Throughout the debate, which was focused on Quebec, Poilievre stood firm and sounded confident, relaxed and able to handle the issues. At the same time, Liberal Leader Mark Carney was passable in French, but at times seemed halting, unable to jump into the cut and thrust of the debate and out of his depth to a degree compared to the other three leaders.

In the early parts of the debate, Carney pushed the idea that Canada should shift from trading with the U.S. to trading with the European Union. It’s an idea that will sit well with Montreal’s elites, but not with anyone who has tried to engage in trade with the EU.

Poilievre also pointed out that the Stephen Harper government negotiated the free-trade deal with the European Union and that over the last 10 years, the Liberals did nothing with the deal but are now suddenly obsessed with European trade.

While this is described as the French-language debate, we should just call it the Quebec debate in the federal election. Sure, there are pockets of francophones across the country, especially in Ontario and New Brunswick and even in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island.

But you wouldn’t know it based on the debate Wednesday night. They were all focused on Quebec, even debating a new bridge versus a new tramway line in Quebec City.

In some ways, it is hard to blame them. The majority of francophones live in that province and the second largest francophone population — with just over 500,000 people — is in Ontario with less than 4% of the province’s total population.

So the French debate is essentially the Quebec debate and the issues that got played up were quite different.

Each of the leaders were fervent in defending supply management for dairy — a program that is supposed to protect family farms, but doesn’t, while driving up the cost of milk, cheese and butter. There were light moments, such as when the leaders were asked about their purchasing habits and everyone but Carney talked about not buying American strawberries.

In a recent interview in French, Carney was asked if he still bought American strawberries given the Donald Trump tariffs and answered that, as prime minister, someone buys his groceries for him. The answer missed the point of the question and made Carney look clueless, given he was PM for about 10 days before calling the election.

Carney tried several times to turn the topic back to the U.S. president and his threats to the Canadian economy. That’s the ground that Carney is most comfortable on and it’s what helps his polling numbers.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

The other leaders weren’t allowing that.

“You’re just like Justin Trudeau, you represent the same policies,” Poilievre said to Carney when the issue of housing affordability was raised.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet made a similar point about Carney and Trudeau.

“Same party, same ministers, same caucus, same ideology, same hostility toward Quebec,” Blanchet said.

Carney simply tried to turn the discussion back to Trump, while ignoring the problems the Liberals had created on the housing, immigration and national unity files — all issues discussed during the French-language debate.

There was no knockout punch as these things aren’t designed for those moments, but Carney didn’t look strong, he didn’t look in control or relaxed. By contrast, Poilievre looked like he was relaxed, strong and in control.

In the coming days, we will see if the polls change to reflect that.