NDP’s Mulcair attacks Harper ahead of first election debate

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe won’t be attending.

The economy is expected to be front and centre, as it has dominated the first few days of the campaign, but the debate will also touch on energy, the environment, democracy, foreign policy and security.

Thursday’s two-hour debate, which starts at 8 p.m. New York time, is hosted by Maclean’s magazine, and will be broadcast on City TV, a Toronto-based channel that is accessible to cable subscribers across Canada.

“Analysts are predicting good growth for this economy into the future, as long as we stay on track”, Harper said during the day’s first campaign stop at a factory in Laval, Que.

The details of each leader’s visit remain to be seen.

Wells believes the debate will be “pretty feisty” and that every leader has a lot riding on this debate.

On Sunday, Harper asked Gov.-Gen.

Stephen Harper has delivered the first big-budget promise of the Conservative election campaign: a permanent home-renovation tax credit that will cost taxpayers $1.5 billion a year once implemented.

Other debates are planned.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green Party Leader Elizabeth are the only two federal leaders to confirm they will take part in the “Up For Debate”, national leaders’ debate next month dedicated exclusively to women’s issues, after the coalition of more than 175 women’s groups and allied organizations lobbied all the party leaders.

The coalition of groups, calling themselves “Up for Debate”, is an alliance of more than 175 women’s organizations across Canada and says it is trying to raise awareness about women’s rights in the 2015 election.

He will have to attack proposals made by his opponents.

Mulcair was elected NDP leader in 2012 after the death of predecessor Jack Layton, who in 2011 led the party to official opposition status for the first time.

“Although he has struggled in French-language confrontations, he has otherwise come out ahead almost every time he has been put on stage beside his rivals”.

Many eyes will also be on Mulcair as a much-lauded debater.

Different debates are deliberate.

A Saskatchewan farmer says Tom Mulcair should be honest with producers, and all Canadians, when it comes to genetically modified foods.

The economy has not performed as well as Harper claims.

In past campaigns, debates have been hosted by a consortium of the major broadcasters, but Macleans said they had become increasingly complex, with questions coming from ever-larger panels and from hand-picked “ordinary Canadians”.