What we learned from Radio-Canada’s ‘Cinq chefs’ party leader interviews [Video]

French-speaking Canadians got a first taste of how the five main federal party leaders defend their platforms beyond U.S. tariff threats in the span of two hours Thursday night on Radio-Canada’s Cinq chefs, une élection program.

The show featured five live interviews with the five leaders. It kicked off with the Liberals’ Mark Carney, followed by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, then the Bloc Québécois’s Yves-François Blanchet, NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and lastly Green Party Co-leader Jonathan Pedneault.

The leaders talked Canadian (and Quebec) sovereignty and how they would defend Canadian interests in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump — but also how they would fix the current housing crisis, make life more affordable, support workers and protect jobs. And they talked about Canada and Quebec’s place in a rapidly changing world. 

Blanchet told hosts Céline Galipeau, Anne-Marie Dussault and Sébastien Bovet that it felt like the first day of the campaign to him because so …