Recapping the high-stakes leaders' debate

Summary

Front Burner – “Recapping the high-stakes leaders' debate”
CBC | April 18, 2025
Host: Jamie Poisson
Guest: Aaron Wherry

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Episode Overview

This episode of Front Burner provides an in-depth recap and analysis of Canada’s only English language federal leaders’ debate of the 2025 election campaign. Host Jamie Poisson is joined by CBC politics writer Aaron Wherry to break down the high-stakes performances, strategies, and notable moments from Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet. The conversation also digs into the controversy surrounding post-debate media scrums and the debate commission.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Debate’s Framing: Defining the “Ballot Question”

• Carney as the Front Runner:

  • The debate showed Carney’s new position as the clear front runner. All other leaders targeted him, making him “under siege.”
  • “[The other party leaders] think Mark Carney is the front runner, given the amount of attention they focused on him and the attacks they focused on him.” – Aaron (02:15)

• Two Competing Narratives:

  • Carney’s focus: The threat of Donald Trump and Canada’s place in the world.
  • Poilievre’s focus: Domestic “cost of living” crisis and the failures of Liberal policies.
  • “It’s almost, you know, the way I’ve come to look at it is: Mark Carney views it as Donald Trump is the biggest problem facing Canada, and Pierre Poilievre thinks Justin Trudeau and Liberal policies are the biggest problem facing Canada.” – Aaron (02:50)

2. Candidate Performances: Hits and Misses

Mark Carney (Liberal)

• Pressure as Incumbent:

  • Carney weathered intense scrutiny but did not lose his composure.
  • “He was sort of taking criticism from all sides. But...I’m not sure whether this would have necessarily shaken up the race.” – Aaron (04:28)

• Strongest Moments:

  • On economic unity and handling U.S. relations:
    • “We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away. If we have one Canadian economy, not 13.” – Carney (05:19)
  • Quip at Poilievre:
    • “May be difficult, Mr. Poilievre, you’ve spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax. And neither, they’re both gone, okay? They’re both gone. And we’re in a new…” – Carney (05:42)

• Humorous Interlude:

  • Blanchette jokes about pipeline timelines and Trump’s age, easing debate tension:
    • “The building of those pipelines will take at least 10 to 14 years. Mr. Trump will be 90 years old.” – Blanchette (06:23)
    • “Not president no more…” – Carney (06:36)

Pierre Poilievre (Conservative)

• A Calmer Persona:

  • More measured tone, strategic avoidance of “culture war” rhetoric.
  • On CBC:
    • “CBC will continue to operate as a self-funded, Canadian owned and controlled non-for-profit that raises money like other media organizations…” – Poilievre (08:06)

• Best Attack Line:

  • Framed Carney as Trudeau’s successor and indistinct from past Liberals:
    • “Are you prepared to elect the same Liberal MPs, the same Liberal ministers, the same Liberal staffers all over again for a fourth term?” – Poilievre (09:12)
    • “Justin Trudeau staffers are actually here with you at this debate in Montreal writing the talking points that you are regurgitating into the microphone.” – Poilievre (09:44)
    • Carney’s retort: “I do my own talking points, thank you very much.” – Carney (10:03)

• Weak on Environmental Policy:

  • Pushed LNG exports as a solution, but lacked a clear plan for reducing emissions within Canada.
    • “If we sent our gas to India...we could reduce emissions by 2.5 billion tons...That’s the way we bring emissions down and jobs up. It’s common sense.” – Poilievre (10:34)
  • Analysis: Lacked substance on Canadian emissions reduction.

Jagmeet Singh (NDP)

• Aggressive Entry:

  • Singh was persistent in challenging both Poilievre and Carney, often interrupting and “needling” them.
    • “You want to save people $2,000, but cut their dental care…childcare…pharmacare coverage…That’s not a very good math deal right there.” – Singh (12:51)

• Helped Carney, Perhaps Unintentionally:

  • Occasionally, Singh’s attacks on Poilievre diverted pressure away from Carney.
    • Example during debate on the industrial carbon price – “But do you know the answer either? You’re just throwing out thousands of dollars.” – Singh (14:17)

• Limited Effect:

  • Strategy reflected the NDP’s struggle to gain traction amid collapsing support, with their base shifting to Liberals.

Yves-François Blanchette (Bloc Québécois)

• Less Central, Some Levity:
  • Provided comic relief, notably on pipeline timelines relative to Trump’s presidency.
  • Generally not a key source of substantive challenge to the front runners.

3. Policy Highlights: Issues For Voters

• Climate & Housing (for younger voters):

  • Housing and affordability only briefly addressed due to the debate’s crowded agenda.
  • Poilievre directly appealed to young voters:
    • “Young people believed they’d never be able to own a home in the first place...” – Poilievre (20:03)
  • Climate discussions repeatedly reverted to pipeline debates and export strategy.

• The Notwithstanding Clause:

  • Poilievre advocated using it to ensure consecutive life sentences for multiple murderers, potentially overriding Charter rights:
    • “I will use the constitutional powers...to ensure that mass murderers stay in maximum security penitentiary for life.” – Poilievre (17:41)
  • Carney’s warning:
    • “I think it’s a very dangerous slope to override judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada...The Charter...exists to protect Canadians from people like us on the stage, politicians...” – Carney (18:36)

4. Lighter & Memorable Moments

• “Greatest Regret” Question (22:53)
  • Candidates scrambled for humblebrag-style answers about wishing they could meet more Canadians.
    • “That’s a very good question. I’m not very fond of regrets, I would say.” – Blanchette (23:04)
    • “To be honest, it’s the same answer. This is an astonishing country…” – Carney (23:35)
    • “I actually agree with these two gentlemen…I would...greet every single person and hear their stories.” – Poilievre (23:53)
  • Described by Aaron as the “classic...‘What’s your biggest weakness? I work too hard and care too much’ kind of answer.” (24:07)

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Controversy: The Debate Scrums Chaos

[25:00]–[29:48]

• The traditional journalist Q&A sessions (“scrums”) were canceled after fringe right-wing media outlets dominated the French debate’s scrum; Rebel News specifically mentioned.

• Some outlets with records of misinformation and aggressive tactics were accredited, crowding out mainstream journalists and creating a tense media environment.

  • “Will you condemn the rise in acts of hate against Christians today and accept…?” – Rebel News to Singh (26:14)
  • Singh: “Thank you, but I’m not going to respond to an organization that promotes misinformation and disinformation like Rebel News...” (26:26)

• CBC journalists, including Rosemary Barton and David Cochrane, were confronted and directly harassed by right-wing agitators inside the media center.

  • “These were right wing people that publish their own agenda and websites, who confronted journalists inside the media center...” – Jamie (27:36)

• The debate commission faced substantial criticism both for the scrum disaster and for last-minute decisions that, for example, excluded the Greens from the debate:

  • “The debate commission...has just had a miserable week...This year the debates were fine. It was everything else around the debates.” – Aaron (29:13)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away.”
  – Mark Carney (05:19)
• “Justin Trudeau staffers are actually here with you at this debate in Montreal writing the talking points that you are regurgitating...”
  – Pierre Poilievre (09:44)
• “I do my own talking points, thank you very much.”
  – Mark Carney (10:03)
• “What’s your greatest regret?” – Blanchette: “I’m not very fond of regrets, I would say.” (23:04)
• Jamie describing candidate answers as “when you do a job interview and you’re like, ‘Oh, my greatest flaw is that I work too hard.’”

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Important Timestamps

• [02:15] – Debate framing: Carney as front runner, ballot question splits.
• [03:48]–[04:53] – Carney under siege, performance analysis.
• [05:19] – Carney’s emotional unity/economy line.
• [09:00]–[10:08] – Poilievre’s best attack; Carney’s retort.
• [12:07]–[13:44] – Jagmeet Singh’s aggressive tactics and impact.
• [16:59] – The Notwithstanding Clause segment.
• [19:58] – Appeals to young voters, housing affordability.
• [22:53] – Candidates’ “greatest regret” answers.
• [25:00]–[29:48] – Debate scrum disaster, media tensions.

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The tone of the episode is deeply analytical but accessible, with Jamie and Aaron blending wonkish detail with wry, candid observations about Canadian politics. The discussion balances serious election issues with lighter moments and media process drama, providing listeners with context, critique, and color from inside the debate.

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Useful for anyone who missed the debate or wants a concise yet deep rundown of the night’s key moments – minus the noise of ads and formalities.

Transcript

[Jamie Poisson]

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[Aaron]

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[Aaron]

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[Jamie Poisson]

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[Aaron]

Follow World Report wherever you get your podcasts.

[CBC Announcer]

This is a CBC podcast.

[Jamie Poisson]

Hi everyone, I'm Jamie Poisson. Two nights, two debates. My colleague Erin Wary is with me. We have just finished watching the only English language debate between the party leaders. We're going to go through a lot of the big beats, talk about what we saw from the leaders tonight. I think there was a lot of helpful stuff that came out. Also, stick around for the end of the conversation because we are going to go through a really unusual and unfortunate series of events that led to the scrums, where journalists ask questions to candidates at the end to be canceled. It all started with a decision that allowed fringe right wing outlets to dominate the French language debate scrums and it only escalated from there. All right, Aaron. Hi.

[Aaron]

Hey, Jamie.

[Jamie Poisson]

It is 10:30 Eastern Time Thursday night. We've just finished watching the debate and to steal equip, I saw another regular guest of this show make online, David Mossgrop was the winner of the debate tonight. Confirmation bias.

[Aaron]

You know, it's funny, I imagine the public doesn't know this, but usually after every debate the parties all send out releases explaining why their guy was the winner and of course, very objective takes. You know, I think if you probably had a favorite tonight going in, you probably didn't change your mind, but there might be some movement around the edges. So I suspect that's what we'll talk about.

[Jamie Poisson]

Big picture observations here. How would you characterize the entire debate? Maybe.

[Aaron]

I mean, it's pretty clear that at least the other party leaders think Mark Carney is the front runner, given the amount of attention they focused on him and the attacks they focused on him. I think there's a pretty clear kind of divide that has emerged in this campaign and is apparent in the debates over sort of what particularly the conservative leader Pierre Poliev and the Liberal leader Mark Carney view as the ballot question.

[Jamie Poisson]

Do you think for Carney it was Trump in Canada's place in the world? I guess. And for Polly of it was cost of living?

[Aaron]

Yeah, I, I think that's, I think it's even bigger than that. I think it's almost, you know, the way I've come to look at it is Mark Carney views it as Donald Trump is the biggest problem facing Canada and Pierre POV thinks Justin Trudeau and Liberal policies are the biggest problem facing Canada. And, and I think for both leaders, everything kind of flows from that sort of distinction.

[Jamie Poisson]

Right, right, right. Polly have did that many times tonight. You know, we're in a very weak position to face Trump kind of kind of stuff. Let's dig into their individual performances a little bit more. Mark Carney, as the front runner, as you mentioned, had the most to lose tonight by virtue of him being the front runner. I. How under siege was he by the other candidates? Did any of them actually get the best of him at any point or set him up to make some kind of mistake at some point?

[Aaron]

Yeah, I don't know if the Liberals would have come out of this debate thinking that their guy, you know, suffered any kind of grievous blows. I mean, he definitely was under pressure and there was a lot of criticism being lobbed at him. And I felt even at times that Mr. Blanchette, particularly the Bloc Quebec wall leader and Mr. Polly of the Conservative leader were almost just trying to get under his skin and see if they could get him to lose his temper.

[Mark Carney]

The question was about pipeline. I'm getting to it. Thirdly, one project, one review and relying, relying on provincial. Yes, it is possible. It is possible on our system. It is the impact. It is agreed on.

[Aaron]

You know, as much as Mr. Carney would say, would say, you know, I've only been the Prime Minister for a month. He is essentially the incumbent and he is the pretty clear front runner. So he was sort of taking criticism from all sides. But I don't know, for people who are sort of in the Carney camp at this point or who are ready to vote Liberal, I'm not sure whether this would have necessarily shaken up the race.

[Jamie Poisson]

Yeah, he didn't lose his cool at any point. Any standout moments from him where you thought that was great, that was a strong moment.

[Aaron]

I think he's at his strongest generally when he's talking about his, you know, sort of big economic plans or, you know, talking about the crisis of Trump and, you know, having to face that head on.

[Mark Carney]

We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away. If we have one Canadian economy, not 13. And if we just look at that agreement we got with the provinces, look at what Ontario and Nova Scotia have just announced in terms of their steps towards this. This is within our grasp.

[Aaron]

There was a line, I'm sure it was prepared ahead of time, of him saying to Pierre Poliev, I know it.

[Mark Carney]

May be difficult, Mr. Poliev, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax. And neither, they're both gone, okay? They're both gone. And we're in a new.

[Aaron]

In terms of quips, you, you know, I'm not sure Mark Carney quips very often in those situations, but I think that was sort of his one liner of the night, and then I think the rest was kind of falling back on that sort of reassuring presence that he's trying to project and talking as, you know, trying to convey the sense that he's a substantive, serious guy.

[Jamie Poisson]

And I'm not saying this was necessarily like a standout debate moment, but it was kind of funny when Yves Francois Blanchette, the block leader, was talking about.

[CBC Announcer]

How the building of those pipelines will take at least, at least 10 to 14 years. Mr. Trump will be 90 years old.

[Mark Carney]

Not president no more, and somebody, of.

[CBC Announcer]

Course, less terrible will be there before.

[Aaron]

You can even dream.

[Jamie Poisson]

Poliev laughed. It was a nice moment of levity, I thought, let's do Polly Ev. Barring some unforeseen thing that happens in the next week, this was really his last big stage, big national stage. Much has been said in the weeks coming up to this about what version of Polly Ev we would get tonight. And what version did we get?

[Aaron]

Well, we got sort of a mix, right, because he did go after Mark Carney a fair bit. But I don't think in, in any of the two debates either tonight or last night that, you know, Pierre Poly have used the word woke even once. You know, his, his sort of culture warrior or sort of very populist conservative Persona. I think he sort of shelved it. And, you know, it's always kind of awkward to have this conversation because we're CBC journalists. But even his answer on the CBC was very, you know, he was asked, well, you know, are you still committed to defunding the cbc? And he said, well, yes, CBC will.

[CBC Announcer]

Continue to operate as a self funded, Canadian owned and controlled non for profit that raises money like other media organizations through sponsorships, subscriptions, advertising, licensing fees and countless other things that will ensure Canadians who still want to listen and view its content will be able to do so. And at the same time, and that's.

[Aaron]

You know, very different from the rally version, which is it warms my heart.

[CBC Announcer]

To think of the beautiful family rolling up in their U Haul to move into their wonderful new home in the former headquarters quarters of the cbc.

[Aaron]

A lot of the main substance was still there, but the presentation was quite different, I thought. And, you know, that's, I think, you know, indicative of him seeing where his sort of vulnerabilities are and trying to steer away from them.

[Jamie Poisson]

Yep. Best moment, worst moment.

[Aaron]

I, I think, you know, when he hits Mark Carney and saying, you're the same, it's the same party, the same Liberals. I mean, I think, you know, that's a hard thing for Mark Carney to completely steer away from.

[CBC Announcer]

What is your cost of living like compared to what it was a decade ago? And are you prepared to elect the same Liberal MPs, the same Liberal ministers, the same Liberal staffers all over again for a fourth term?

[Aaron]

He can't completely run away from the last nine years in office. And I think that's the strongest argument Pierre Poliev has to play, and that's why he sort of leans on it as much as he does.

[Jamie Poisson]

There was a line that he delivered tonight, which I would also guess was prepared beforehand, where he talked about how.

[CBC Announcer]

Justin Trudeau staffers are actually here with you at this debate in Montreal writing the talking points that you are regurgitating into the microphone. How can we possibly believe that you are any different than the previous 10 years of Liberal government?

[Mark Carney]

We have five seconds left in this.

[CBC Announcer]

Segment for you to respond to that.

[Mark Carney]

Look, I do my own talking points, thank you very much.

[Jamie Poisson]

To be fair, Carney responded quite quickly, but I thought it was a good moment for Poliev. Do you want to do a worse moment or. I don't know if that's fair. Maybe a moment where things are a bit rougher for him.

[Aaron]

I think on climate issues, his hand is a bit weaker. He makes this argument that we should export LNG and that it will reduce emissions.

[CBC Announcer]

If we sent our gas to India, for example, to displace half of their demand for electricity, we could reduce emissions by 2.5 billion tons, which is three times the total emissions of Canada. That's the way we bring emissions down and jobs up. It's common sense. And now it's time.

[Aaron]

And then he sorts of, he kind of then tries to make the argument that we should, you know, be bringing more production to Canada and that will lead to lower emissions. But the missing piece in that, of course, is that he doesn't really have much to say about how he'd lower Canadian emissions. And I think that is, you know, when the topic moves to climate change, it's, it's, you know, maybe just because I follow these, that issue more than others, it's a pretty, I think, glaring hole in the, in the sort of larger offer he makes.

[CBC Announcer]

It was the dawn of a new era of space flight.

[Aaron]

Our space program has reached another important milestone. We're going to fly this new rocket. Never been flown before, and we got people on it. You know that there are a lot of things that can go Wrong.

[CBC Announcer]

From the BBC World Service, 13 Minutes presents the Space Space Shuttle. I think we've got something that's really.

[Jamie Poisson]

Going to mean something to the country and the world.

[CBC Announcer]

Listen on the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jamie Poisson]

Support for the NDP and the block have collapsed, with those voters largely migrating to the Liberals. And I wonder if you think either Jagmeet Singh or Blanchette did anything tonight that might entice some of those voters to come back.

[Aaron]

I mean, I think it was a more important night of the two. It was a more important night for Jagmeet Singh and I think I'm interested to see how people feel about what he, how he approached this because he was very insistent on getting in and interrupting and needling both Pierre Polyev and Mark Carney and challenging them.

[CBC Announcer]

Your hard work should once again pay off with a powerful paycheck that buys you an affordable food, affordable home. You want to save and that's what we will deliver.

[Jagmeet Singh]

You want to save people $2,000, but cut their dental care, which is thousands dollars. Cut their child care, which is thousands. Cut pharmacare coverage, which is thousands of dollars. That's not a very good math deal right there.

[Mark Carney]

You're going to 10 years from now, in 20 years from now, as the world uses less, we want to have more market share. We need to do my government, my government will move that.

[Jagmeet Singh]

But by definition, a subsidy isn't when we buy a pipeline. I'm talking about subsidies that go to oil and gas companies, well dependent, separate from the country. Oil and gas companies. That's the figure you quoted.

[Aaron]

I think it was a bit of a metaphor for the position he's in writ large and trying to just get into the conversation that has, you know, the idea that they will fight and they will, you know, hold these other guys to account. I just don't know in this setting of a debate whether people, how, how viewers are going to feel about that kind of approach.

[Jamie Poisson]

Were there moments where you thought he might have helped any. Anyone on stage?

[Aaron]

There were a couple of moments where he leapt in to attack Pierre Poliev. And in kind of an, I don't know, I would assume inadvertent way sort of helped out or bailed out Mark Carney. You know, Pierre Poliev had started in on this attack about the industrial carbon price and that was directed at Mark Carney. And suddenly Jagmeet Singh sort of leapt in to needle Pierre Poliev about it and questioned his knowledge of the situation.

[CBC Announcer]

Mr. Carney didn't answer my question. I asked how much an industrial carbon tax on Canadian steel add to the price of a car and he won't answer because he knows that it will be very expensive because there's lots of steel in cars now. Well, Mr. Carney has temporarily. But do you know the answer either you're just throwing out thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars.

[Aaron]

It happened on pipelines too, where he, he kind of jumped into needle. Pierre Polyv, you know, mocked Pierre Polyev about housing and how many affordable housing units had been created when Pierre Polly was the minister in charge of that file.

[CBC Announcer]

First of all, Mr. Sandra, the Toronto Star. The Toronto Star debunked your falsehood.

[Jagmeet Singh]

Six homes.

[CBC Announcer]

And I appreciate neither Liberals or NDP are very good with math. But in that year I was great.

[Aaron]

Because Mark Carney was very. I don't know that Mark Carney very often pressed the case against Pierre Poliev. And in a way it sort of helped that drug meats. It helped Mark Carney that drug meat sing was there to sort of launch the attacks that Mark Carney didn't.

[Jamie Poisson]

We are not going to get into every issue that they discussed over two hours tonight. And I'll just say for people listening that we have an episode currently slated to run early next week where we are actually digging into a bunch of policy proposals with experts across the country. So I do, I hope you will tune into that. But I do want to go through a few moments that I think did produce interesting daylight and or good exchanges from the candidates. Considering Trump has loomed so large in this election. He did not come up a ton. And are you surprised?

[Aaron]

A little bit. Although I think as, as I thought about it more as the debate went on, I think the. If there's a reason he didn't come up, it's because there's really only one leader on that stage who wants to talk about him, and that's Mark Carney. And perf doesn't want to have that conversation. Jagmeet Singh doesn't really. There's no advantage to him to having that come up. And so I think that sort of lined up for the discussion to kind of, you know, you saw this particularly in that first segment where it was, I think, supposed to be about Trump and tariffs and instead became a conversation about pipelines. You know, the other, the non Mark Carney leaders on the stage saw a better advantage in, in talking about things that aren't necessarily directly about Donald Trump.

[Jamie Poisson]

I thought a very interesting bit was the discussion over the notwithstanding clause. And just to explain it a little bit, Poliev has said that he is willing to use this tool that allows you to override the Charter of Rights and to stack multiple life sentences. And that would mean someone convicted of several murders would have to serve their sentences back to. Back to back. The Supreme Court ruled that that is not constitutional. And just tell me a bit about the interactions that this section produced.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I think, you know, this gets complicated, but I think Pierre Poliev has framed this in terms of I'm going to use the notwithstanding clause to protect.

[CBC Announcer]

Canadians and I will use the constitutional powers that are created for this purpose to ensure that mass murderers stay in maximum security penitentiary for life. They will only come out in a box.

[Aaron]

We will also sort of ends justify the means, you know. You know, using this clause, he even frames it in terms of protecting Canadians rights.

[CBC Announcer]

To be clear, I want to uphold the charter rights of Canadians under section 7 to life, liberty and security of the person. Right now that right is violated by multiple murderers who are given discounts.

[Aaron]

And the argument against that from Mark Carney, I think you heard it from most specifically tonight is, you know, once you start using the notwithstanding clause to overrule judicial verdicts, to set aside charter violations, you know, where does this lead?

[Mark Carney]

I think it's a very dangerous slope to override judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada. In fact, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms exists to protect Canadians from people like us on the stage politicians who may use their power to override fundamental rights.

[Aaron]

And the issue in using it is given how much this issue has come up, especially at the provincial level in recent years, it is very relevant, I think. And then this would be. I think it also needs to be underlined. If Pierre Polyev were to form government and if Parliament were to use the notwithstanding clause, this would be the first time the federal parliament has ever used it.

[Jamie Poisson]

I want to ask you straight about some issues that matter to younger people in this country because I know that a lot of people listening are of younger generations. They are thinking about owning a home. They are thinking about being able to afford rent, to afford childcare, they're thinking about climate Change, which, you know, I know we've talked about already a little bit. And did you hear any candidates tonight really try to reach them, and if so, how?

[Aaron]

I mean, I think Pierre Poliev made at one point a very direct appeal to young people.

[CBC Announcer]

Mothers went to bed with empty fridges and empty bank accounts, worried how they'd feed their kids, that seniors worried they'd be evicted from their homes, that young people believed they'd never be able to own a home in the first place. Now, in retrospect, you look back on the liberal decisions that you advise Justin Trudeau to take. 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 and I think.

[Aaron]

The issues of housing and climate were touched on. But I don't know that, you know, one of the drawbacks of having a single debate, and it's two hours and you're covering three dozen topics, is that an issue like housing that really could go for an hour or two on its own, doesn't get hashed out as.

[Jamie Poisson]

Much related to climate. Pipelines took up a lot of time tonight. They took up a majority of a section that was actually about tariffs for some reason. I actually don't even remember how it seems to have gotten so hijacked. But do you want to briefly talk to me about what you heard there?

[Aaron]

Yeah, I mean, I guess this is the very quintessential Canadian conversation about pipelines that we've been having for decades. You know, look, the, the, the, I think the Conservatives were always interested in more pipeline development. The, the specter of Donald Trump and the potential threats to the Canadian economy and Canadian sovereignty has, has restarted the conversation amongst Liberals about building more pipelines. I think that if there's a split, it's really sort of over under what conditions those pipelines would be built, you know, what kind of regulations, what kind of environmental protections, you know, and they didn't really get into it except to kind of argue over who loved pipelines more. But it's really sort of over. Under what conditions and what rules are these things? Are these pipelines actually going to be built if they're going to be built?

[Jamie Poisson]

Towards the end of the debate, the candidates got to ask each other questions, which was kind of fun. It sort of felt like this was designed as the portion of the debate that a lot of campaigns would want to clip for social media. They got also more questions from the moderator, journalist Steve Paikin. Could I tell you the one that I really want to Talk about it was when Steve Bacon asked them what their, like, greatest regrets were from the campaign. And I'm still laughing about it. I just got these. We just got these answers with varying degrees of like, I care too much. I wish I could have cared more. It's like when you do a job interview and you're like, oh, my greatest flaw is that I work too hard. Was that also your favorite moment of the entire debate?

[Aaron]

So I am not a big fan of gimmick questions in debates, but this one was entertaining strictly for, you know, Mr. Blanchette went first, and he didn't quite have an answer for it.

[CBC Announcer]

That's a very good question. I'm not very fond of regrets, I would say.

[Aaron]

And then Jagmeet Singh went second, and having had 30 seconds to think about it, came up with not being able.

[Jagmeet Singh]

To meet as many people as I would love to have. It's a short campaign, and so I can't get to as many communities that I wanted to. I think one of the honors of my job is to be able to meet people and to hear their stories and then to take their stories and concerns and bring them to Ottawa and to fight for those people.

[Aaron]

And then, of course, you know, Mark Carney hears Jagmeet Singh's answer and goes.

[Mark Carney]

To be honest, it's the same answer. This is an astonishing country. It is an amazing country.

[Aaron]

Oh, I was going to say the same thing. And I also would like to, you know, get. It's really great to travel and so on. And then Pierre Poliev was like, well, I have to agree with the other two.

[CBC Announcer]

I actually agree with these two gentlemen. I had a rule that at all my rallies, even when they're really big, I would stand in front of a flag and greet every single person and hear their stories and learn their struggles.

[Aaron]

It really was sort of a classic kind of like, what's your biggest weakness? I work too hard and care too much kind of answer.

[Jamie Poisson]

Normally, we would not end this conversation talking about the scrums with journalists. That happened. That happened after the debates, to be honest. They're usually kind of boring. They're not big newsmakers. But as I mentioned in the intro, some really crazy stuff has happened that led to tonight's scrums actually being canceled. The debate commission said that they could not guarantee a proper environment. And do you want to take a stab at what happened yesterday that got the ball on this whole thing kind of rolling?

[Aaron]

Yeah. So the debate commission has had this problem, I think, both in 2019 and 2021, where they have tried to, you know, not accredit certain right wing websites. The rebels may be the most sort of well known of them. And then it's, you know, I think in at least one case it went to the federal court and it got overturned and they had to accredit them. And, and even in the last, I think it was the last in 2021 there in, after that debate, the scrums were sort of, you know, the, it was at least noticeable that these websites were, were in line to ask questions. But then, you know, last night at the French debate, for whatever reason the commission, the debate commission let themselves get talked into accrediting multiple reporters from these outlets and then giving them, you know, multiple attempts to ask questions during scrums. And then those individuals from these websites sort of lined up to ask questions and they dominated the questions. And, and you know, Jagmeet Singh's responses were probably most noticeable. Noticeable.

[Jamie Poisson]

Will you condemn the rise in acts of hate against Christians today and accept, explain what your party will do moving forward to keep Christians safe from hate in Canada?

[Jagmeet Singh]

Again, thank you, but I'm not going to respond to an organization that promotes misinformation and disinformation like Rebel News. So no, I'm not going to respond to your question.

[Aaron]

So that sort of set up tonight where there was, you know, this, this sort of, you know, what happened after the French debates created a certain amount of tension in the media room. And then further events happened today where there was, you know, multiple incidents, some of them involving our colleagues at the cbc. And, and it sort of boiled over into, you know, essentially the debate commission shutting down the scrums because they didn't think they could pull them off. Essentially they couldn't, you know, maintain the environment to have these scrums happen. And you know, so there was even more conflict. And it's as you say, like this is, these scrums are usually not very interesting and they're pretty perfunctory and this was all sorts of conflict and it sounds like, you know, shouting and yelling and it's just not a great scene for what is supposed to be our, you know, one of the sort of signal moments of an election campaign.

[Jamie Poisson]

Yeah, I think just lots of, and I would say understandable frustration from a lot of mainstream media in the face of all of these right wing provocateurs being given all of this access. And then also I was watching, as you mentioned, our colleague Rosemary Barton talk about how she was like confronted. These were right wing people that publish their own agenda and websites, who confronted journalists inside the media center, who confronted David on his set, who directly and personally confronted me inside the media center. These are people that the commission decided to accredit, and that is where we are now, the situation. I don't know exactly what happened, but her and David Cochran were giving pretty passionate accounts on television.

[Mark Carney]

This is where we've ended up in this election with everything going on with Donald Trump and everything going on in this economy and everything going on in the world. This is where the national Canadian election debate has ended up. And it's just exhausting. And it's been. It is the end product of multiple years of rage farming for narrow political gain and financial benefit for the independent.

[Jamie Poisson]

Commission that oversees the debate. They have gotten a lot of blowback in the last two days for this and also because at the last minute, they yanked the. The Greens ability to participate in debate. And it just seems to me like this is not going to, like, blow over.

[Aaron]

No, no. I mean, I think there's sort of two things. One is the, the media conversation about who is, you know, given access to these events and how people are treating other people. And then I think there's a larger issue of the debate commission, who's just had a miserable week. In previous years, there were complaints about how the debates were conducted. This year the debates were fine. It was everything else around the debates. And so, yeah, this is just going to be a, an issue going forward. And, and whoever is in government after this election is going to have to figure out what to do with it.

[Jamie Poisson]

Okay, Aaron, thank you.

[Aaron]

Anytime.

[Jamie Poisson]

Before anybody goes, Aaron is again going to be with us on election night. We're doing the live stream. It's going to be really fun. You can find it on the CBC News YouTube page, the CBC News TikTok page. We are going to link to it in our show notes and promo it all next week. All right, that is all for today. Front Burner was produced this week by Matthew Almham at Muse, Ali Jaynes, Joytha Shangupta, Lauren Donnelly, Karen Oudsworn and Mackenzie Cameron. Our intern is Isa Adil. Our video producer is Evan agard. And our YouTube producer is John Lee. Our music is by Joseph Chavison. Our senior producer is Elaine Chow. Our executive producer is Nick McKay Blocos. And I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you next week.

[CBC Announcer]

For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC CA Podcasts.