It's a date: English-language leaders' debate confirmed for Sept. 17

For the first time in Quebec electoral history, there will be a televised English-language leaders' debate.

Liberals, PQ, CAQ and QS party leaders will go head to head just before the fall election

CBC News ·
Left to right, Philippe Couillard, Jean-François Lisée and François Legault, as well as Québec Solidaire's Manon Massé, will take part in an English-language televised debate on Sept. 17. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

For the first time in Quebec electoral history, there will be a televised English-language leaders' debate.

A date has been set for Monday, Sept. 17 — two weeks before Quebecers head to the polls on Oct. 1.

The leaders of all four parties with seats in the National Assembly will take part in the 90-minute debate.

They are: 

  • Liberal Party Leader Philippe Couillard.
  • Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault.
  • Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée.
  • Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé.
The announcement comes about two weeks after a consortium of English-language media in Quebec — including the CBC, CTV, Global, CJAD and the Montreal Gazette — made a formal request for an English-language debate.

"We know we have a wider playing field this time around … and the way the English communities cast their vote can have a real influence on the outcome, and I think it's a real recognition of that," said Helen Evans, CBC's managing editor in Quebec.

The format of the debate has yet to be determined, but Evans says there will be questions about specific issues affecting anglophones and "really holding them, the parties, to account for the services and things that matter to the English-speaking community."

CBC will be broadcasting the live debate on television, radio and stream it online, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The only time party leaders took part in an English-language debate was in 1985, but that one was not televised. The radio-only matchup was between Liberal leader Robert Bourassa and PQ leader Pierre-Marc Johnson.