Values issues bring out nastiness
The issue of the niqab in Canadian citizenship ceremonies roared to life in Friday’s leadership debate with Tom Mulcair trying to fight his way out of a political corner by accusing the prime minister of using the issue for political reasons.
But the debate veered into a ferocious battle about values with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau demanding Stephen Harper state once and for all whether he is pro-choice with Harper retaliating by accusing him of setting a bad example to youth because the Liberals want to legalize marijuana.
In a passionate final debate — in French — before the Oct. 19 election, NDP leader Mulcair, Harper, Trudeau and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe traded some of their nastiest barbs of the campaign over issues which had nothing to do with the economy.
It was TVA host Pierre Bruneau who opened the hot values issue when he asked Harper whether he agreed with one of his party’s candidates, Gérard Deltell, who referred to the niqab issue as “candy” for the party in a close election campaign.
Harper responded mildly using a scripted answer about Canadian values.
But desperate for a way out of the quagmire the niqab has created in his campaign, Mulcair pounced, steering the issue back into accusations that Harper in fact doesn’t really care about women’s issues.
“What you are doing with the niqab is trying to hide your record,” Mulcair blasted back. “You use this as a weapon of mass distraction.”
“Mr. Mulcair, you are trying to change the subject,” Harper responded. “Your position is disconnected from the Canadian reality.”
Asked if he would legislate on the issue, Mulcair said he wouldn’t spend a dime on such a plan even if he too is not at ease with veils. Out of 680,000 new immigrants arriving a year, the niqab issue has affected exactly two people, he said.
“You can’t even convince your own candidates,” Harper responded in reference to dissidence in the party. “One case is one case too many. “
“You had 10 years to change this,” Mulcair said. “You tabled this the last day of the last month of a 10year mandate. You are using this for political reasons.”
Trudeau dove in, too, and the debate veered again when he said there are more men in the Conservative caucus who are anti-abortion then there are women in niqabs in Quebec.
“And since you are all about val- ues, are you going to tell us tonight, for the first time, whether you are pro-choice or anti-choice,” Trudeau asked.
Harper got in his own values barb earlier over Liberal plans to legalize the use of marijuana, saying as leaders they “should set a good example.”
“How are we going to protect our children if we put marijuana in corner stores,” Harper asked.
It was that kind of an evening, and it opened with Trudeau and Mulcair accusing each other of being too similar to the current prime minister to represent real change.
If there was one light moment of the tense evening it was when Trudeau slipped up in French referring to Duceppe as “mon amour,” instead of “mon ami,” in a rapid-fire exchange on Canada’s place in the world.
Mulcair got off a good line in the segment too, accusing Harper of thriving on conflicts.
“Mr. Harper, you never met a war you didn’t like,” Mulcair said, adding the way to peace in the world is not “dropping more bombs.”
The Trudeau- Mulcair clash started from the top of the debate and didn’t let it up, with Mulcair ac- cusing Trudeau of being in Harper’s pocket because the Liberals voted for the budget and Bill C-51.
“In my family we always said actions speak louder then words,” Mulcair said.
Trudeau was ready with a pithy response.
“I know you are going to spend a lot of time tonight trying to detour the conversation to attack me directly,” Trudeau said, making a reference to last week’s Munk debate where Mulcair got personal with him over his father Pierre Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act.
“Mr. Trudeau, nobody is attacking you personally,” Mulcair said. “It’s a simple reality that you voted for the Harper budgets.”
But when Harper tried to attack Trudeau for past Liberal deficits, Trudeau blasted back that the only years the Conservatives didn’t have deficits were electoral ones.
“You’ve been too long at 24 Sussex,” Trudeau said. “It’s time for a change. With you it’s always somebody else’s job.”
All three leaders sparred over the future of Canada’s supply management system, which is being discussed at the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Atlanta.
“I want to know if the supply management system will survive (these talks) intact,” Duceppe asked, to which Harper responded vaguely: “We will preserve the system.”
Duceppe and Mulcair also tangled over the Energy East pipeline. Duceppe accused Mulcair of saying one thing in English in Western Canada and another in French in Quebec.
“It’s false to say we’re in favour of Energy East,” Mulcair said.
“I listened to the English debate. You said it was win-win-win,” Duceppe said.
The debate comes as the campaign enters its final stage and with voters starting to actually pay attention. And they are witnessing what is increasingly becoming a battle between the Liberals and Conservatives, with the NDP slipping into third place.
The latest public opinion poll, by the Léger firm for TVA, the Journal de Montréal and Le Devoir, has the Liberals leading nationally with 32 per cent support compared with the Conservatives at 30 per cent and the NDP 26 per cent.
Part of the NDP’s problem is sliding support in Quebec — 10 percentage points this week, which followed the 8 points lost the week before. The NDP still leads in Quebec with 28 per cent of the vote but the Liberals, with 24 per cent, are nipping at its heels.
The NDP’s losses have resulted in increases for the Conservatives and Bloc, too — 21 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.
The Bloc now leads among francophone voters alone with 30 per cent of the vote compared with the NDP’s 27 per cent. This is a pool of voters who will actually decide which way the province swings. Until the niqab issue took hold, most of these francophones were with the NDP.
But 43 per cent of voters say they can change their mind.
At this stage, the person who is perceived to have performed the best in the debate — 57 per cent of those polled said they will watch it — can use it as a springboard to create a bandwagon effect.
“A debate can become an extremely important moment were voters will say, ‘Here is where the race is going,’” said Léger vice-president Christian Bourque.
“Strategic voting becomes important.”
Harper, meantime, had another solid evening in French, defining himself in stark, simple terms as the only option for Quebecers interested in keeping their taxes low and the economy running on an even keel.
Michael Den Tandt