The Oct 2 French Language Debate

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So that's settled, then.

I watched the last hour but honestly, my French is just not up to making a proper assesssment.  Blanchet definitely had a good night.  Scheer struggled (plane zinger at Trudeau aside) and was under a fair bit of attack, on Ford defunding francophone services in Ontario, on abortion and otherwise.  I thought there wasn't much daylight between Trudeau and Singh as far as how well they performed.

Blanchet went after Scheer more than the others (for the simple reason that most of the ridings which Blanchet is targeting are held either by Conservatives or by the NDP).  He doesn't need to do anything to collapse the NDP vote in Quebec given where it sits already, he just needs the Bleus back in the Bloc fold.

UPDATE: I have spoken to/emailed a few friends who felt that Jagmeet Singh's French was impressive and likely surprising to a lot of Quebecers.  That, along with the story about the Atwater Market could prove helpful. 

KarlL wrote:

I hadn't yet read this English language media assessment in the Globe & Mail when I wrote my note above but all four  below conclude that Scheer had a tough night:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-on-quebec-debate-stage-a-very-different-campaign-in-the-spotlight/

Monteral Gazette's Rene Bruemmer

https://montrealgazette.com/news/national/election-2019/leaders-come-out-swinging-in-french-debate-fighting-for-quebec-votes

National Post, which is not normally prone to highlight a weakness for Scheer.  

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2019/andrew-scheer-on-defensive-in-first-french-language-election-debate

Toronto Star's Tonda McCharles:

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/10/02/sparks-fly-in-french-language-election-debate.html

and le Devoir's Guillaume Bourgault-Cote and Helene Buzzetti 

ledevoir.com/politique/canada/563928/le-debat-des-chefs-a-tva

 

 

But...but...I thought Andy hit a home run?

Chantal Hébert:

My take on the TVA debate/Andrew Scheer had a long night-

Andrew Scheer made no gains in French-language debate

Thu., Oct. 3, 2019

"Trudeau, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet were all considered to have had a decent night, essentially at Scheer’s expense."

https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/10/03/andrew-scheer-made-no-gains-in-french-language-debate.html

Toronto Star - ha!

There are 9 innings, so just becausae he hit a home run, and he did hit a home run, doesn't mean he won the game!

I'm more interested in his citizenship - how did he get it? Maybe Trump give it to him for being such a ........

A Toronto Star reporter - who are you kidding, eh!

Trudeau got nailed by the the once again  hypocritical Liberals 2 planes / climate change fiasco.

The Bloc had the best nite, followed by the NDP.  Liberals and Conservatives not so much.

 - don't you ever get tired of the constant Liberal talking points!

NorthReport wrote:

There are 9 innings, so just becausae he hit a home run, and he did hit a home run, doesn't mean he won the game!

I'm more interested in his citizenship - how did he get it? Maybe Trump give it to him for being such a ........

Baseball is America's national pastime, so it makes sense now. 

I'm not sure if I quite understand your first sentence.

As for Chantal, I would say she's one of the few journalists in Canada who has never compromised her integrity.  She is usually very objective, in both English & French.  And in this case, she's just one of several voices saying the same thing -- Trudeau, Singh & Blanchet did well in last night's French debate, and Scheer did not.

Not sure why that's being debated here, anyway.  She pointed out that Trudeau, Singh & Blanchet each came across well in different ways and that Scheer struggled.  If you look above, the Josée Legault column says the same thing, and she's certainly no liberal since she's a sovereigntist.

kropotkin, those kind of personal attacks are unnecessary.  I don't make them on you.  And your comments about both me and Chantal are off base.

You sound angry & bitter.  Why not stick to the substance of the discussion rather than getting personal?

Mulcair was a Cabinet Minister in a Liberal government so of course he is a Liberal. Quebec Liberals are like BC Liberals as far as I can tell and frankly they are the enemy. Mulcair used a false dichotomy to attack his successor, in the corporate press of all places. As a longtime supporter of people like Robinson and Siksay I find his lecturing anyone on NDP anything repulsive and insulting. He took the only real chance that the party has ever had and showed his liberal colours when the people of this country wanted change. I think he is despicable to be selling his prestige as a former leader of the party in this crass manner.

Debater you too remind me of people like Vaughn Palmer, in between elections you pretend not to be a Liberal partisan and since I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt you get my scorn when you drop the veil .