For the second time in as many nights, Canada’s political leaders debated their platforms against each other during the English-language debate.
A French-language debate was held the previous night.
It was a tame affair, with the leaders being somewhat respectable to each other.
During the one-on-one exchanges, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre attempted to get Liberal leader Mark Carney to take responsibility for the economic decisions made by Liberals under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Will you look the camera in the eye and apologize to the many people who suffered as a result of the inflationary policies that you advised Justin Trudeau to implement?, asked Poilievre.
“I know you want to be running against Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau isn’t here,” retorted Carney, claiming he provided no such advice to policies.
“Twice I was a Central Bank Governor, and in both cases, when I was responsible, inflation was less than 2%. I’ll add that when I was responsible for the Bank of Canada, inflation was less than 2%. Our dollar was at parity. That is the kind of success that I can deliver for this country,”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh questioned Carney’s role with Brookfield, a company accused of setting up off-shore accounts for tax purposes.
Carney attempted to deflect the criticism by noting the investments were helping Canadian pension plans but agreed to a review of the corporate tax structure when asked about preventing other companies from taking similar action.
On the issue of U.S. trade tariffs, Carney says he has proven to be a strong leader in the short time he took over from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Within the first week as Prime Minister, I sat down with all the premiers of the provinces and territories as well as the leaders of the Indigenous peoples, got an agreement with all the provinces and territories,” says Carney
“Doesn’t happen very often. Got an agreement for them to have one Canadian economy instead of 13.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre argued Liberal policies have made Canada weak.
“The Liberal government has weakened our economy with anti-energy laws, red tape and high taxes that have driven $500 billion out of our country into the United States and made us incapable of shipping our resources overseas,” says Poilievre.
“I would cut taxes, red tape and approve our resource projects so that we can get our goods to market and bring home the jobs. So, we stand up to President Trump from a position of strength.”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says people feel betrayed by U.S. President Trump’s actions.
“And so, Canadians now are right to say, well, we don’t really trust Donald Trump at this point, and we can’t really have a lot of faith in him,” says Singh.
“We need to make decisions that are in our best interest and no longer be so dependent and so reliant on the U.S., and that’s what I would advocate for making sure we are resilient and independent and less dependent on the United States.”
The federal election takes place on April 28th.
Advance polls open tomorrow.
