MONTREAL – All three major party leaders are in Montreal today to hone their talking points ahead of a French-language debate on Friday.
Stephen Harper has no public events on his calendar and will instead focus on preparation for the debate hosted by the TVA network.
The Conservatives remain confident about increasing their seat count in Quebec, where they currently hold only five ridings.
Both NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau are scheduled to make simultaneous announcements in Montreal this morning.
Trudeau – who is back on Liberal turf after playing offence in NDP and Conservative ridings the past two days in Winnipeg and Vancouver – will make an announcement in Lac St. Louis, a riding on Montreal’s West Island that is a longtime Liberal bastion.
READ MORE: Some key exchanges from the early part of Monday’s leaders’ debate
It is one of a handful of seats in Montreal that the Liberals kept in the last election.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will be in the downtown riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, which the New Democrats snatched from Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe in 2011. He is trying to win it back from Helene Laverdiere in this election.
Mulcair has consistently denied this week that his support in Quebec is slipping – despite some polls that suggest otherwise – saying the NDP has never enjoyed more strength in the province than it does now.
He will make an announcement on climate change, a topic he has been pressing for several days, before taking a time out to prepare for Friday’s debate.
Green party Leader Elizabeth May holds a full slate of events near her home turf in British Columbia, greeting commuters, visiting a school to speak about women in politics, attending an all-candidates meeting and holding a town hall. May was not invited to participate in Friday’s TVA debate.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe’s lone campaign event today is a morning news conference in Montreal where he plans to discuss supply management.
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