MONTREAL – Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary spoke French and staked out his turf as the socially liberal candidate in tonight’s leadership debate.

Critics expected his French to be poor, but he confidently read his entire opening statement from a piece of paper, causing the large audience in Pointe-Claire to erupt with cheers.

When an audience member asked O’Leary to defend his conservatism, O’Leary unapologetically set out liberal positions.

He said it’s impossible to win a majority mandate if the party can’t capture 18 to 35 year olds. “They want different things or they’ll vote for Trudeau again,” he said.

“I’m a numbers guy, I get it. I have to win back my 23-year-old daughter.”

“So LGBTQI done, marijuana done, reproductive rights 100 percent. Get used to it, that is the definition of the Conservative Party of Canada going forward,” said O’Leary.

He was later attacked by several of the other candidates, who reiterated that he’s not a Conservative. In Andrew Scheer’s closing statement he quipped, “All of us up here are Conservatives. Well, almost all of us up here are Conservatives.”

According to a new poll conducted by Mainstreet Research for iPolitics, O’Leary is the membership’s first choice, followed by Bernier and Leitch.

The debate was organized by two Conservative riding associations: Lac-Saint-Louis and Pierrefonds-Dollards, and 11 of the 14 contestants participated. Deepak Obhrai held an event in Calgary with former foreign affairs minister John Baird.

Pierre Lemieux and Brad Trost watched the debate and each had one opportunity each to speak on stage. Trost took the opportunity to try and appeal to members by saying that his marriage is interracial so therefore he can reach out to new Canadians.

Although Obhrai was missing from tonight’s debate, bad French and funny one-liners were still present.

Notably, Lisa Raitt began a few answers in French but constantly switched to English. While Andrew Saxton said “protecting budget balance is like protecting your virtue. You have to say no.”

Steven Blaney, who’s no stranger to using props to make a point, raised a small milk carton while defending supply management.

Kellie Leitch, who has been the most controversial candidate to date, repeated several times that “we are not on the fringe,” a shot at Trudeau’s description of her as a “fringe voice.”

Leitch continued to defend her proposal to test new immigrants for anti-Canadian values, and, when asked about the Quebec mosque attack, she continued to describe it as an attack on “individuals,” failing to acknowledge that the six men killed at prayer were Muslim.

Leitch’s best moment was scolding the moderator who addressed the candidates as “gentleman” toward the end of the debate.”

“Here’s my prerogative, last I checked there were two women on stage,” said Leitch.