Here´s what the party leaders need to do - and avoid - in televised debates
(The Star Food)

OTTAWA—Canada’s federal party leaders take to the national stage for the only English-language debate of the 2019 campaign featuring the all of the main parties. The Toronto Star and other media organizations are producing two debates this week — a French one will be held Thursday — and hope to reach more than 11 million Canadians. The debates are critical opportunities for each leader to articulate their vision, critique the promises of their political rivals and (they hope) sway voters ahead of the Oct. 21 election — and just days before advance polls open over Thanksgiving weekend.The topics up for debate will include affordability and economic insecurity; the environment and energy; Indigenous issues; leadership; and human rights and immigration.Here’s a look at some of the challenges for each of the leaders:Maxime Bernier, People’s PartyMust do: Aim for mainstream voters. Justify proposed curbs on immigration and multiculturalism and climate change inaction without sounding irrational. Must avoid: Becoming his Twitter persona, after he called environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg “clearly mentally unstable,� denounced climate change as “lies, not science,� and attacked Justin Trudeau’s “extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity.�Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc QuébécoisMust do: Stake a claim to being the only viable representative of Quebecers’ values and interests.Must avoid: Getting caught in a five-on-one trap over his party’s separatist ambitions.Elizabeth May, Green PartyMust do: Seize youth votes and the climate-change moment by positioning her party as the only one with the policy ambitions to tackle global warming.Must avoid: Ad libbing in a way that muddles her party’s platform message.Andrew Scheer, Conservative PartyMust do: Stress economic message. Shake off disappointing performance in the first French-language debate, look c ...