Conservative leadership candidates will meet tonight in Edmonton for the first official contest debate | CBC News

You can watch special live coverage of the event starting at 5 pm ET on this page.

what to expect

Canadians previewed tonight’s event last week when five of the six candidates took part in a debate in Ottawa organized by the Canada Strong and Free Network. The debate was unofficial in the sense that it was not organized by the Conservative Party’s own leadership committee.

That debate quickly turned into an unusually aggressive grudge match marked by personal attacks, shouting and interruptions.

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre harassed former Quebec premier Jean Charest over his previous lobbying work for Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, describing him as a masked liberal who likes to raise taxes.

Arguing that he is the candidate best positioned to appeal to voters in cities and suburbs, Charest pointed to the Conservatives’ ill-fated 2015 ballot proposal to establish a “barbaric cultural practices” hotline as evidence that the party has lost contact with many Canadians.

Melanie Paradis, a former senior staffer for outgoing leader Erin O’Toole, said she hopes tonight will see a repeat of what she called the first “sharp elbowing” debate.

“The teams didn’t see it as a mistake on their part. That was their plan and I think some of the teams will double down on that approach,” he told CBC News.

Two candidates, MP Leslyn Lewis and former Ontario MP Roman Baber, are likely to fight again for a position to the right of Poilievre, arguing that they are best suited to defend the freedoms of Canadians.

Lewis accused Poilievre of failing to adequately support the anti-vaccine mandate trucker convoy that occupied much of downtown Ottawa this winter.

MP Scott Aitchison, an MP who last week drew attention to candidates’ tendency to “scream and yell at each other”, may once again appeal for calm and seriousness.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, the only candidate who skipped last week’s debate, will be on stage with other candidates for the first time tonight. Brown and Polievre have traded personal attacks on the campaign trail, but have yet to see eye-to-eye.

Lightning rounds and extended one-on-one trades

The two-hour debate will feature five sections with different and, in some cases, quite complex rules.

In the opening round, candidates will make comments of no more than 45 seconds based on the message: “My vision for Canada is…”

No one may mention the name of other candidates or any political party leader during this section.

The debate will then move into what organizers call “rapid fire” and “lightning round” sections, in which candidates will be asked the same questions simultaneously and must answer yes or no.

In the lightning round, candidates will have 15 seconds to answer questions posed by moderator Tom Clark, a veteran former political journalist.

The debate will then move into what could be its most dramatic and contentious section, one in which the moderator will direct questions to individual candidates based on a lottery.

During this section, each candidate selected for a question will be able to choose another candidate for a one-on-one debate.

Those exchanges will be expanded later to include other candidates on stage. They will be asked to evaluate using a “rebuttal spade”, which can only be used a limited number of times.

The debate will conclude with the candidates giving a closing speech explaining why they want to lead the Conservatives.

Candidates to face each other in at least one more debate

The candidates will reconvene on May 25 in Montreal for a debate in French before resuming campaigning that will last most of the summer.

There are no more debates scheduled, although the party says it reserves the right to host a third debate at the end of August.

Conservative members will vote for their third permanent leader in the last five years at a convention on September 10.