Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau fielded a barrage of attacks from left and right during a chaotic and unfocused two hours at the official English-language debate Monday night.

From Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, on his climate plan: “If you have a fire in a four-storey building, getting a one-storey ladder doesn’t do it.”

From Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, on Trudeau’s repeated invocation of Ontario Premier Doug Ford: “You are oddly obsessed with provincial politics. If you want to run for the Ontario Liberal leadership, it’s open.”

And from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who said Trudeau has “nice words,” but has governed like a Conservative: “Mr. Trudeau, you sound a lot better, but you’ve done the same.”

The debate furiously bounced between topics in a dense and at times hard to follow format, with the six leaders given a minute or less to speak to questions from the Canadians randomly drawn from nearly 9,000 submitted questions, five moderators and each other.

The night began with a pointed barb from Scheer, who did not respond to a question on Canada’s role in the world: “Mr. Trudeau can’t even remember how many times he’s worn Blackface,” Scheer said.

“Mr. Trudeau: you are always wearing a mask.”

Trudeau’s reply came soon after via an exchange with People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier, whose far-right positions played a surprisingly central role in the first hour: “Mr. Bernier, your role on this stage is to say publicly what Mr. Scheer thinks privately,” Trudeau said.

Another pointed exchange came following a question on Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans religious symbols in the public service.

“This is a bill that says to people that because of the way they look, they can’t do a job,” Singh said, speaking passionately to his personal experience with racial prejudice.

“So why won’t you fight it if you form government?” Trudeau asked, pointing out that the NDP has not pledged to challenge the province on the bill.

The debate was scheduled to race through five topics, devoting about 20 minutes each to affordability and economic insecurity; energy and the environment; Indigenous issues; national and global leadership; and polarization, human rights and immigration.

None of those topics received great depth from the leaders; the section on Indigenous issues revolved around pipelines for much of its term.

Throughout, only Singh appeared to be at ease in the format, cracking jokes after both Trudeau and moderator Dawna Friesen mistakenly referred to him by Scheer’s name. “I wore a bright orange turban on purpose today,” he quipped.

Like Trudeau, Scheer was fending off attacks from all sides of the political spectrum.

“Andrew, are you a real Conservative?” asked Bernier, who narrowly lost the leadership of the Conservative party to Scheer and is running a far-right campaign. “Why are you pretending to be something you’re not.”

And from May: “With all due respect Mr. Scheer, you’re not going to be prime minister.”

The debate was held in front of a live audience at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

Recent polling suggests Trudeau’s Liberals are within the margin of error of Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives in national voter support.

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The 2019 official debates are produced by the Canadian Debate Production Partnership.

This debate, and the upcoming French debate, are simultaneously translated and available in various languages. Follow these links to watch the debate in:

Described video (only)

ASL (American sign language)

LSQ (Quebec sign language)

French

Ojibwe

Plains Cree

Inuktitut

Mandarin

Cantonese

Italian

Punjabi

Arabic

The debate was guided by moderators Susan Delacourt, Ottawa bureau chief, Toronto Star; Dawna Friesen, national anchor, Global News; Althia Raj, Ottawa bureau chief, HuffPost Canada; Lisa LaFlamme, chief news anchor, CTV News; and Rosemary Barton, chief correspondent of political coverage and live specials, CBC News.

A French-language debate on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. will be moderated by Patrice Roy from Radio-Canada with the participation of Alec Castonguay, head of politics bureau, L’actualité; Patricia Cloutier, National Assembly reporter, Le Soleil; Hélène Buzzetti, parliamentary correspondent, Le Devoir; and François Cardinal, editor-in-chief, La Presse.

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