Themes and formats announced for next week's two televised leaders' debates

The group responsible for producing two televised leaders’ debates says the events will focus on five distinct issues, with some variation between the French and English events.

The English event Oct. 7 will concentrate on affordability and economic insecurity; environment and energy; Indigenous issues; leadership, both in Canada and internationally; and polarization, human rights, and immigration.

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The French debate Oct. 10 will cover the economy and finances; environment and energy; foreign policy and immigration; identity, ethics and governance; and services to citizens.

The Canadian Debate Production Partnership also says the five segments of each debate will feature questions from a variety of sources, including the moderators, Canadians and the leaders themselves.

Open debate between all the leaders will follow the five structured segments at each debate.

Six political party leaders will attend both events: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Green Leader Elizabeth May, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, and Maxime Bernier of the People’s Party of Canada.

The two debates will be free to stream and broadcast, and will be available in various languages, including several Indigenous languages, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Punjabi, and Italian.

Last week, the independent commission responsible for setting up the debates said the events would be live-streamed at 24 movie theatres across the country.

The English debate will be moderated by Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star, Dawna Friesen of Global News, Althia Raj of HuffPost Canada, CTV News anchor Lisa LaFlamme, and CBC’s Rosemary Barton.

The consortium putting the events together includes broadcasters CBC News/Radio-Canada, Global News and CTV News; the Toronto Star and Le Devoir newspapers; the digital outlets HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Quebec and La Presse; and the magazine L’actualite.