RECAP | French leaders’ debate draws out spirited exchanges on pipelines, immigration — and Trump

That's all from our team tonight. We'll be back tomorrow with live coverage of the English-language debate, which is set to start at 7 p.m. ET.

After weeks of anticipation for tonight’s contest, it turned out to be a relatively subdued affair. There were some notable moments and a few good zingers, but ultimately not a lot of fireworks.

There were no personal attacks, despite obvious tension between some of the leaders, and the crosstalk never descended into shouting matches — always a risk with a format that allows for open debate.

There were fairly substantial discussions on a number of key issues, such as pipelines and how to deal with Trump. Whether any of that will move the needle for the party leaders in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada remains to be seen.

The question people always ask after debates is: who won? Party devotees will have their answers, but tonight’s debate might be best described as a draw. None of the leaders made any obviously disastrous missteps, but neither did we see a clear victor emerge.

Now the country’s collective eye turns to tomorrow, when the leaders meet again for an English-language debate.

With the campaign nearing its final week, the stakes are sky high — so we may get some of those fireworks after all.

Check out CBC’s platform tracker, which sums up where the parties stand on top issues.

We’ll continue to update the page as parties release their full platforms.

Let us know at ask@cbc.ca if you want us to recap their positions on any other issues before election day.

If Poilievre’s goal was to communicate well in French and present a calmer demeanour, then he succeeded.

As an MP and leader, Poilievre is known for his combative approach and is more than capable of getting in a verbal punch or two.

Throughout the campaign, however, he has been under pressure to strike a more prime ministerial tone — an area where Carney has had the clear leg up.

Tonight the pugnacious politician was tucked away and we saw a far more subdued Poilievre. But did he punch through? I think we’ll need a few hours of his performance to simmer to know.

His comments supporting building pipelines might not win him votes in a province he’s already trailing in.

He’ll have to strike the same balance tomorrow in the English-language debate as he tries to convince viewers he’s the person to lead the country with the limited time that’s left.

While he’s a front-runner in the election, the Liberal leader went into the French debate with a clear disadvantage: he’s noticeably weaker in his second language than his opponents are, a liability during an evening where the bulk of their energy was directed at him.

Carney seemed a bit timid early on, conceding to interruptions and slow to jump in during moments of cross-talk and debate banter.

He became a more active contestant as the night progressed, getting most of his major campaign talking points across. And unlike the French-language Liberal leadership debate, where he misspoke egregiously, he didn’t make any major translation missteps.

That might be enough to hold his comfortable lead in Quebec, where the Liberals — polling at 42.4 per cent — are well ahead of the Bloc, polling in second-place at a distant 24.6 per cent, according to CBC’s Poll Tracker.

“Mark Carney came out unscathed,” observed L'actualité columnist and At Issue panellist Chantal Hébert. “None of the punches from the other leaders really landed, and that by definition means that he gained.”

Blanchet responded to a question about how Quebec would face Trump if it were its own country, as his party advocates.

"I believe that we have to build alliances between equals," Blanchet said, noting Canada is already looking to strengthen relationships with allies around the world.

He said he knows Quebec won't become a country "in the coming months, but the idea is that the Quebec economy is different from the Canadian economy."

The Bloc leader repeated a grievance he brought up during the debate, which is that he believes there is too much priority given to Ontario in Canada.

Blanchet said Quebec has paid tariffs on lumber for years, but that Carney was promising the Ontario auto industry $2 billion in relief as soon as Trump announced tariffs.

"So far all we have seen is efforts being deployed to protect the Ontario economy, which is the way Canada defines itself," he said.

At least one person at the media scrum tonight mastered multitasking. (The Habs led 3-1 after two periods.)

Blanchet is up last. Answering a journalist, Blanchet said he’s not a “fanatic” against oil and maintained that high oil consumption is costly for families and “destroying the whole planet.”

“The denial of the reality of climate change since the beginning of this campaign and the change of heart of Mr. Carney, who decided to be more conservative than Mr. Poilievre, is very harmful for our environment,” Blanchet said.

Poilievre said he would repeal Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which requires platforms to spend millions investing in Canadian content and creators. His party has argued that the legislation will have the impact of censoring what Canadians see online.

His assertion about being the defender of the press comes despite being the leader with the most restrictive campaign stops (he only takes four media questions per day, with no followups) and promising to defund the English-language public broadcaster.

When it was Poilievre’s time to take questions from the media, he did something he hasn’t done on the campaign so far: take followup questions.

Media access to Poilievre’s campaign has been tightly controlled. Unlike with other party leaders, the media is limited to asking Poilievre four questions with no followups, and party officials decide which reporters ask questions.

But the debate commission has different rules.

“We are the only party that is willing to protect freedom of the press, of all the media,” he said, taking a question from Rebel News.