Steve Bannon will take centre stage in Toronto at the November Munk Debate, days after being dropped from the New Yorker magazine’s festival.

U.S. President Trump’s former White House chief strategist will debate Atlantic senior editor David Frum at the prestigious debate on Nov. 2 at Roy Thomson Hall, organizers announced Wednesday.

The two will take on “the rise of populism,” with Bannon on the “pro” side and Frum on the “con.”

“Throughout the Western world, politics is undergoing a sea-change,” reads the description of the debate on the website for Munk Debates, a charitable initiative that pits two opposing figures against each other on polarizing issues.

“Does this surging populist agenda in Western nations signal a permanent shift in our politics? Or, is it passing phenomenon that will remain at the fringes of society and political power?”

Bannon was dropped as a headliner from the New Yorker magazine’s October festival, after several other high profile speakers at the event, including Judd Apatow and Jim Carrey, said they would pull out if he appeared, the New York Times reported.

Frum, a Canadian-American who worked as a speech writer for George W. Bush, tweeted Wednesday morning about the debate.

“On the Friday before the most important midterm elections of our lifetimes, I will debate Steve Bannon at Canada’s @munkdebate — and argue that his politics will lose and liberal democracy prevail across the Western world,” he wrote.

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The Munk Debates’ past debaters include Henry Kissinger, Glenn Greenwald and Tony Blair.

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