It took an hour and 16 minutes before the niqab came up in Friday night's French-language leaders debate, and it was then that NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair really got going.
This was, for him, the big moment. Two weeks ago, Mr. Mulcair was the king of Quebec, well ahead in all polls, but now it's slipping fast. When moderator Pierre Bruneau asked about the niqab, the NDP leader expressed his unease with the wearing of the veil but also his insistence on defending rights even when they're unpopular.
Then he entered into the head-on clash that marked the night: he accused Stephen Harper of playing low politics with Islamophobia, while Mr. Harper hit back that Mr. Mulcair was out of touch with Quebeckers, and even his own MPs. But while the big moment was between Mr. Mulcair and Mr. Harper, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe was probably this debate's winner.
There were meatier issues. But Mr. Harper's declaration that his party would seek to ban the niqab from citizenship ceremonies, despite court rulings, has been the trigger for Mr. Mulcair's decline in Quebec.
The NDP leader started by saying that the niqab makes many people uneasy –including him. But he added that court decisions have to be respected. He accused Mr. Harper of wielding the issue as a "weapon of mass distraction."
The issue, he said, "represents exactly two cases out of 680,000 new immigration cases, and no, I would not spend taxpayers' money to fight against a unanimous decision of four judges in two levels of courts."
Mr. Harper replied: "Mr. Mulcair, you're not even able to convince your own MPs of this position. One case is one too many."
It was the line that the Conservative leader had been waiting to deliver, the one declaring the NDP leader out of touch with Quebec. Mr. Mulcair could make his point of principle, but most Quebeckers don't like the niqab and even some of his own MPs disagree with Mr. Mulcair's position. The NDP leader passionately declared Mr. Harper's tactics beneath a prime minister, but that wasn't tamping down the issue to move on. If Mr. Mulcair wins back voters because of it, he won't win them all.
Mr. Harper may gain, too, although his performance in much of this debate was defensive, and not particularly strong, even if though he got his low-tax, no-deficit pitch across – plus the niqab.
But polls suggest that it is Mr. Duceppe's Bloc Québécois that is gaining the lion's share of those defecting NDP voters. And Mr. Duceppe had the edge in the debate, too.
He put the others on their heels not only with questions about the niqab, but on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the end of Canada Post home delivery. In this debate, called face à face because it is designed to encourage one-on-one dynamics, it was often the Bloc Leader making others, notably Mr. Harper, look uneasy.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, was doing what he has done in all the debates – ensuring he acquits himself on debating points, while drilling home his distinctive platform of deficits and infrastructure spending to kick-start the economy, and big middle-class tax cuts. He too said he would not ban the niqab, declaring it a matter of individual rights, but he seemed more intent on letting others fuel that debate. Aside from the one light moment when he called Mr. Duceppe "mon amour" instead of "mon ami," he more or less accomplished his goals.
And he had a new closer: telling viewers they have to choose a prime minister – a subtle suggestion, now that Mr. Mulcair has fallen behind in polls, that the choice is now between him and Mr. Harper.
Mr. Mulcair, in fact, did a lot more than talk about the niqab. He laid down other markers, and scored debating points. He declared himself the only leader who would pull Canada completely out of the military mission in Iraq, and telling Mr. Harper, "You've never met a war you didn't like." He emphasized his promise to cancel Mr. Harper's plan to raise the age for Old Age Security. But most viewers probably weren't left with a clear idea of his platform's central focus – a driving issue to displace the niqab.
And then there was Mr. Duceppe, who doesn't have to explain how he'd govern. Resuscitated by the niqab issue, he capped a lively performance with an update of the Bloc's old pitch: that it will represent Quebec's values, get its fair share, and block the Energy East pipeline. The next government will probably be a minority, so the Bloc can hold the balance of power, he said.
It's not clear yet whether that old pitch will sell again. But on Friday night, it appeared Mr. Mulcair didn't make enough of a mark against Mr. Harper that would make him king in Quebec again, and it was Mr. Duceppe who was smiling
Campbell Clark