Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre faced the critical glare of the mega-popular Radio-Canada talk show Tout le monde en parle on Sunday in an attempt to woo francophone viewers, with the Liberal leader being pressed on his cultural awareness of the province and his Conservative rival differentiating himself against perceptions in Quebec he is a “mini-Trump.”
The show, which regularly attracts up to a million pairs of eyeballs in vote-rich Quebec, is widely seen as a test for leaders trying to win over voters in a province that sends 78 MPs to the House of Commons, the largest number outside of Ontario.
“My French is not perfect. I try to be transparent, I make gaffes,” Carney acknowledged, when pressed by host Guy A. Lepage.
Both Poilievre and Carney have hurdles to overcome in Quebec’s unique political landscape.
Quebec is the only province where Poilievre and the Conservatives did not reach the heights they had in opinion polling in the days before Justin Trudeau had announced his resignation and Donald Trump had assumed the U.S. presidency, with the party remaining behind the sovereignist Bloc Québécois in voter support.
And Carney has been at the centre of a number of Quebec-related mistakes that his political opponents have been keen to seize on in the early days of this campaign.
Despite those moments, the CBC Poll Tracker still has Carney far ahead of his rivals in Quebec, with the Liberals poised to receive 42.4 per cent of the popular vote, the Bloc and the Conservatives jockeying behind him at 23.5 and 23.2 per cent, respectively.
The Liberals typically cannot form a majority government without crucial support in Quebec, with Trudeau denied in the last two elections thanks to a surging Bloc Québécois.
Challenged on his economic credentials, Carney pointed out that in 2008, as governor of the Central Bank of Canada, he worked with then-Quebec premier Jean Charest to get the province through the worst of the recession.
He was also asked about potential pipelines going through the province in the future.
“Quebecers use 355,000 barrels of oil per day,” Carney said, adding most of that comes from the United States, and insisting there are ways to reduce that dependency.
“We would only do it if we have social acceptability,” he said.
Lepage also pushed him on his position regarding the controversial Law 21, provincial legislation which bans public sector workers in positions of authority from wearing overt religious symbols such as hijabs or yarmulkes while on duty. The Liberals have vowed to intervene against the law at the Supreme Court of Canada.
“It’s very technical,” Carney said, then added it is important to balance the rights of individuals versus those of society.
Carney also defended his publicly expressed misgivings on over-reliance of the notwithstanding clause, a defence Quebec has invoked both for Law 21 and its language law, Bill 96, which the Liberals have vowed to challenge too.
“It’s a question for jurists,” he said.
As for Poilievre, he faced questions over the perception in Quebec he is too Trump-like. “Are you a mini-Trump, a medium Trump or a large Trump?” Lepage’s co-host Jean-Sébastien Girard asked the Conservative Leader.
“I weigh 180 pounds,” Poilievre quipped in response, and then contrasted his own “modest” background as the child of two middle-class teachers in Alberta to the U.S. president’s inherited family wealth.
“I have a completely different story from Donald Trump,” he said.
When asked about whether he is frustrated polls tend to favour Carney as a better negotiator with the president, Poilievre replied: “It’s certain that if I can face Guy A. Lepage, I can face Donald Trump.”
“Yes, but I don’t have tariffs,” Lepage said.
Poilievre leaned on his family background again when confronted by Lepage with how he has come off as more aggressive for much of his tenure as opposition leader — but has taken to smiling more often on the campaign trail.
“I talked to Lucien Bouchard,” he said, revealing a connection with the former Brian Mulroney-era Progressive Conservative cabinet minister who went on to co-found the sovereignist Bloc Québécois after quitting that party.
“And he said to me, ‘You need to fight for what you have, and you are a fighter.’ Sometimes, it can be aggressive, but it comes from a place of wanting to fight for people who need better.”
Poilievre did not back down when questioned about his stated goal of defunding the CBC but keeping Radio-Canada, insisting that the French-language arm of the public broadcaster offers a unique service for Francophone audiences.
He asserted that the news offering in the private market in English Canada is sufficient.
When Carney appeared on a special Radio-Canada program Cinq chefs, un élection on the second week of the campaign, he struggled to specifically answer a question about what he loved regarding Quebec, naming supply management as part of his reply.
He was more at ease when Lepage tested his Quebec knowledge again.
“Can you name a singer? A cheese?” Lepage asked.
“Coeur de Pirate!” Carney said, dropping the stage name of famous Montreal musician Béatrice Mirelle Martin.
He was also able to name Lepage’s comedy group, Rock et Belles Oreilles.
When co-host Girard asked Carney the last name of another frequent host of the show, Dave-Éric Ouellet, he did not pull through. “That’s becoming a little obscure,” he quipped.
Often, Tout le monde en parle guests remain on-set after their interviews, joining each other on a couch to the side of the main interview spot, sometimes with a glass of wine.
But Poilievre and Carney did not stick around, unlike NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who appeared on last week’s show and participated in another segment. The Bloc’s Yves-François Blanchet is scheduled to appear next Sunday.
Before that, the four leaders, along with the Green Party’s co-leader Jonathan Pedneault, will square off in back-to-back French and English-language debates at the Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal this Wednesday and Thursday.
