Leaders clash over Canadian values
MONTREAL • The issue of the niqab in Canadian citizenship ceremonies roared to life in Friday’s leadership debate with Thomas 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 as Harper retaliated 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 began the values back-and-forth 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, Muclair 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, Muclair 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 10-year 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 values, are you going to tell us tonight, for the first time, whether you are prochoice 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 accusing 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 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.”
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 in to-third place.