Conservative leadership candidates will face off for their first official bilingual debate tomorrow night — an event some candidates doubtless are hoping will be an opportunity to expose their rivals’ poor French language skills.

The debate will be held in Moncton at the Crowne Plaza hotel at 6:30 p.m. eastern and will be streamed online.

The Conservative party is expecting all 14 official candidates to take part in tomorrow’s debate. That list includes former Tory MPs Chris Alexander, Pierre Lemieux and Andrew Saxton, current MPs Maxime Bernier, Steven Blaney, Michael Chong, Kellie Leitch, Deepak Obhrai, Erin O’Toole, Lisa Raitt, Andrew Scheer and Brad Trost, physician Daniel Lindsay and businessman Rick Peterson.

Trost, O’Toole and Raitt reportedly have been practicing their French, and Obhrai told the Huffington Post in September, “My grammar may not be good, but I’m not writing a book.”

The format will be similar to the first leadership debate in Saskatoon, said Conservative party spokesman Cory Hann, but the questions will alternate between French and English.

There will be eight questions — four questions on various policy themes, and four questions from Conservative party members and supporters. The themes for the debate are employment, infrastructure, labour, family, children and finally, health.

Leadership candidates will have 50 seconds in total to respond, and one opportunity each at a time of their choosing to deliver a 30-second rebuttal, Hann said.

Susan Elliott, a Conservative strategist at Strategy Portal Inc., told iPolitics that facility in both languages is absolutely essential in a federal leader, and that the standard is high.

“Some may lament that bilingualism is a fundamental qualification for the top job, but very few would deny it,” said Elliot, pointing out that Quebec candidates have to meet a high standard of English.

“As a minimum measurement, I think people will expect that in the bilingual debate in Moncton, that candidates will be able to easily handle questions in their second language. A candidate who is asked a question in their second language, and answers in their first language, or reads from prepared notes, will be harshly judged, I think,” said Elliott, who is supporting Chong’s leadership bid.

Viewers, and voters, will not only judge candidates on their comfort level, but also on their ability to spar in their second language.

Elliott said candidates will be judged on their ability to react quickly, and correctly, to comments made by other candidates, “and to have a few zippy lines in the second language.”

She said people will be comparing the candidates’ language abilities to those of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who grew up using both languages.

“While matching Trudeau’s fluency is a very steep measure indeed, people will at least want our leader to be able to share the stage with him with competence.”