Despite calling a snap election, Trudeau’s poor debate performance may cost him dearly, as every other Party Leader strategically utilized their time to collectively chip away at the Prime Minister every time he dropped his guard.
Ironically last night’s debate was a disastrous shouting match between Party Leaders who fundamentally agree on everything — only disagreeing on the means to achieve the same ends.
Indigenous reconciliation, climate change, reducing emissions, providing affordable housing, hamstringing the oil industry, fighting racism, bending the knee to Quebec, standing up to China, increasing spending, giving Canadians more subsidies, ending the pandemic, forcing people to get vaccinated, etc.
Same old, same old.
Indeed, the primary point of contention seems to be between Trudeau and everyone else over the former’s track record. And the other Party Leaders were only too happy to join forces in a dog pile over the Prime Minister and show their disdain for his parliamentary reign.
In particular, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul delivered a blow to Trudeau over his handling of sexual assault allegations in the Canadian military and not being a real feminist after removing several women from his caucus.
“I have said before, and I’ll say again tonight that I do not believe that Mr. Trudeau is a real feminist,” said Paul.
“A feminist doesn’t continue to push strong women out of his party when they are just seeking to serve, and I will say their names tonight and thank them,” Paul continued.
“Thank you, Jane Philpott, thank you, Jody Wilson-Raybould, thank you, Celina Caesar-Chavannes. I’m here tonight thanks to the work that you have done.”
“The Liberal Party has never had a woman leader. I think it’s time for the party to examine its priorities,” she concluded.
“I think Ms. Paul, you’ll perhaps understand that I won’t take lessons on caucus management from you,” Trudeau snapped back.
This attack was followed by a one-two from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh over Trudeau supposedly advocating for Indigenous People while simultaneously taking Indigenous kids to court.
“You can’t take a knee one day if you’re going to take Indigenous kids to court the next,” Singh said.
“You love that line about taking Indigenous kids to court,” Trudeau responded. “It’s actually not true.”
On Twitter, Cindy Blackstock came out to denounce Trudeau, all but ousting him as an outright liar, and provided documents the next day to prove that Singh’s claims are substantiated.
I am stunned by Mr. Trudeau's statement that he is not fighting Indigenous children in court. In June, the federal government litigated against First Nations kids to deny them help under Jordan's Principle and to avoid paying compensation to victims of fed. discrimination.
— Cindy Blackstock (@cblackst) September 10, 2021
Here are the two applications that Canada pursued in Federal Court in June 2021 – decisions are under reserve. pic.twitter.com/y9BQFb2XfI
— Cindy Blackstock (@cblackst) September 10, 2021
Trudeau found no sympathy from Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet either.
Though, Blanchet’s very presence at the English-language leadership debate is an absurdity. Several times throughout the debate, Blanchet said that he is “not very much interested in leading Canada,” and it is not clear that he even views himself as Canadian as well as Quebecois.
Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole and Trudeau, of course, sparred several times. However, his best verbal jab came when criticizing Trudeau’s inability to deliver on promises — promises for which his political hegemony is contingent.
“He has great ambition. That’s part of the reason we’re in an election in a pandemic is his ambition. He doesn’t have achievement,” O’Toole said, referring to Trudeau’s lacklustre climate change record.
O’Toole had arguably the best and most composed performances, showing that he could directly answer criticism without being staggered by Trudeau, who went out of his way to attack him.
Nonetheless, the performance was far from inspiring. O’Toole was consistently calm, poised, and steadfast when answering questions and responding to criticism — and he showed more gusto than former Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer.
Comparatively, Trudeau was none of these things. Instead, he came off as angry, hurt, and desperate, often stumbling over his words as he attempted to shout down opponents for comments they had made minutes before.
There currently is no consensus on who won the debate, with each media outlet picking favourites based on this or that sound-byte. The only consensus is that Trudeau performed even worse than he did at the French-language debate — a near-impossible standard to fall beneath, but the boy in red has pulled it off.
