The federal Liberal leadership contest is about to become more heated with the four candidates getting prepared to square off in tonight’s English-language debate.
This debate will be their second, after having debated already in French on Monday night.
It’s high stakes with less than two weeks to go until the Liberal Party chooses its successor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on March 9.
What time is tonight’s English leadership debate?
The debate will be taking place in Montreal between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST. The Liberal Party of Canada will be producing the debate.
How to watch
Tonight’s debate will be streamed live on CTVNews.ca -- right here at the top of this page -- and the CTV News app if you’re watching on your phone or tablet. There will be extended coverage with a debate preview special of Power Play with Vassy Kapelos, airing on CTV News Channel between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST. The special will also be streamed live on the above digital platforms.
CTVNews.ca will provide live commentary and analysis during the debate by journalists and a panel of experts, at this link, which you can bookmark.
Live update participants will include:
- Rachel Aiello – national correspondent for CTV News.
- Scott Reid - principal and co-founder of Feschuk.Reid and CTV News political analyst.
- Tom Mulcair – former NDP leader and CTV News political analyst.
- Nik Nanos – chief data scientist and chair of Nanos Research and CTV News’ official pollster.
- Melanie Paradis – president of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner; former deputy campaign director to Erin O’Toole.
Post-debate analysis
Kapelos and a panel of analysts will then be on hand after the debate ends at 10 p.m. until 11 p.m. EST to offer their takes on how the five candidates did.
Who are the four Liberal candidates?
Mark Carney: a former Bank of Canada governor and “the one to beat,” said pollster Nik Nanos, whose survey earlier this month showed Carney as the one Canadians think would do the best job negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump. Carney has also been endorsed by more than 80 Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers.
Chrystia Freeland: most recently Trudeau’s minister of finance and deputy prime minister before she resigned in December, the “minister of everything” -- as coined by political commentators -- has 12 years experience in federal politics. That includes a stint as head of Canada-U.S. relations, in which she helped ratify a renegotiated free trade deal (CUSMA) with the U.S. and Mexico during Trump’s first presidency.
Karina Gould: the youngest woman to ever serve as a federal cabinet minister, Gould entered politics in 2015 at the age of 28 and was first appointed to Trudeau’s cabinet in 2017 as minister of Democratic Institutions. She has held four different portfolios – including government House leader -- since.
Frank Baylis: the businessman and engineer from Montreal served as an MP in Quebec from 2015 to 2019. He helped found the party’s Black Caucus and has said we wants to use his engineering background to help fix the country’s problems. He helped to grow his family’s medical manufacturing business into a world leader and sold it to Boston Scientific in 2021 for US$1.75 billion.
Up until the end of last week, there were five candidates, but that was whittled down to four after Ruby Dhalla was disqualified from the race by the Liberal Leadership Vote Committee.
