Missed Thursday night's debate? Here's a breakdown of the key moments

Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard was forced to defend his party's track record over the last four years, especially on health care and education, two of the centralthemes in the provincial party leaders'debate that took place Thursdayevening.

The four main party leaders made their pitch to Quebecers in the first televised showdown at a critical juncture in the campaign, with polls suggesting a tight race and nearly half of voters still undecided.

The Liberals' Philippe Couillard, Coalition Avenir Qubec's Franois Legault, Jean-Franois Lise of the Parti Qubcois and Qubec Solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massall took part.

Health care, which polls show is a key priority for Quebec voters, is the sector that saw major budget cuts in the first two years of the Liberals' mandate and dramatic reforms under Health MinisterGatanBarrette.

The debate on that issue began with a question fromRaymondeChagnon, an elderly woman inMirabel, Que., who described the stifling heat, poor food and malodorous conditions her husband has endured since having to move into a public long-term care home (CHSLD) three months ago.

Legault called the situation "shameful," and Lise went further, describing the case of one woman with multiple sclerosis who'd had her home-care service cut by 20 hours a week. He said she'd been treated in an "inhumane" manner, left to sleep in her wheelchair due to lack of care.

"You are responsible for the degradation of home-care services," Lise said, addressing the Liberal leader. He said a PQ government would offer two times more home carethan the other parties have proposed.

"You have never shown the least bit of compassion," Lise said, to which Couillard then responded: "Mr. Lise, you don't have a monopoly on compassion."

'You don't have the monopoly on compassion'

6 years ago

Duration 0:37

In the heated debate over health care for seniors and the disabled, PQ Leader Jean-Franois Lise offers to share some of his compassion with the Liberals' Philippe Couillard.

Specialists' raises decried

The other leaders also accused Couillard of failing to support nurses and other health care workers, instead favouring specialists with generous raises that have provided them with salaries higher than their counterparts in Ontario.

Mass said stressful work environments and strained workloads are forcing other health care professionals to leave their jobs, while Legault questioned why the Couillard government proceeded with specialists' raises while the system was struggling.

The PQ leader, in turn, asked Legaultwhy the CAQis intent on increasing the salaries of Quebec's health care workers to match thoseearned next door in Ontario but wouldn't apply that same principle to other workers, such as mechanics, bus drivers or welders.

"Why not them?" Lise asked.

"Right now, nurses in Quebec earn less than in Ontario, while specialists earn more than in Ontario. That's a problem." Legaultretorted."What planet are you living on?"

"I live on a planet where there's equity," Lise answered.

"We can compare all we want," he went on, "but it's not Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, who will decide how much we're going to pay doctors in Quebec: it willbe Quebecers [who decide]."

'Do you live on another planet?'

6 years ago

Duration 0:48

The CAQ's Franois Legault and PQ Leader Jean-Franois Lise go head to head over pay equity between Quebec and Ontario workers.

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• Full coverage of the Quebec election from CBC News

Education and daycare

The leaders made their pitch to Quebec families in the second section of the debate, which centred on education and the parties' plans for free and subsidized daycare services.

Qubec Solidaire has vowed to end public subsidies to private schools and plow that money back into public education; the PQ has pledged to cancel sliding-scale daycare costs and lower the cost of daycare for a first child to $8.05 daily; the Liberals want to offer free daycare to four-year-olds in subsidized daycare centres, and the CAQ said it would free up 50,000 spots in daycare by sending four-year-olds to prekindergarten in public schools.

"We don't need four-year-old kindergarten because CPEs [early childhood education centres] have the mandate to educate our children," said Mass.

Couillard said Legault was the only education minister to ever say it was a good thing to make cuts to the education budget, an accusation the CAQ leader said was unequivocally false.

"I never said that," Legault said, pivoting to accuse the Liberal leader of making cuts to educational programs for children with learning difficulties such as autism and behavioral disorders.

"Cutting services to children who have learning difficulties, I never did that as minister, I would never do that as premier, and I will never forgive you [for it]," Legault said.

$15 minimum wage

Asked whether they supported raising Quebec's minimum wage to $15 an hour, Couillard said he believed the target shouldn't be on a number figure. Rather, he said, the Liberals would work to increase the average hourly wage by 50 per cent.

Going any further, he said, would put jobs at risk.

Lise said the PQ would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour "as quickly as possible," if elected Oct. 1, but the party wants to make sure there will be no layoffs as a result of the increase.

Legault, for his part, said the focus should be on creating more better-paid jobs in the province, and the minimum wage must be raised incrementally.

'It's the right moment now ... to increase salaries'

6 years ago

Duration 0:41

Qubec Solidaire's Manon Mass suggests to CAQ Leader Franois Legault he has no idea what life's like for the one million Quebecers who earn $12 an hour.

Mass rejected all those arguments outright.

"What world are you living in, Mr. Legault?" she said, throwing back at him the rhetorical question he asked earlier in the debate.

She said a Qubec Solidaire government would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by May 2019 a move she said would raise the living standard for one million Quebecers.

"It's the right time to improve peoples' working conditions, and raising the minimum wage is the base, especially for people to get their heads above water," Mass said, accusing the other three party leaders of shortsightedness.

"These men are wrong. They don't have a vision. They don't dream," Mass said.

The environment and sovereignty

"A green vote is a vote for the PQ," Lise said, in response to a question from Pascale Poirier, a young woman from Sherbrooke who asked the leaders to commit to banning oil and shale gas exploration in Quebec.

He said a PQ government would not authorize any new hydrocarbon exploration projects.

Lise said if Ottawa decided to impose the Energy East pipeline on Quebec, a PQ government would go to battle in the courts against the project.

Couillard said the proposed pipeline project is not acceptable to Quebec.

However, "we can't just say no to pipelines," he added. "We need to speed up the transition" away from hydrocarbons.

Mass said the move away from hydrocarbons needs to happen at all levels and needs to happen quickly.The best way to better protect the environment is for Quebec to gain its independence, she said, a nod to the party's sovereignistunderpinnings.

Asked what the parties would do to defend Quebec's interests, Lisesaid "nothing will work except [to keep] bargaining power" for Quebec in its relations with the federal government.

"Mr. Couillard lost all his battles with Mr. Trudeau," Lise said. "Mr. Legault, who decided to be a federalist once and for all, will have no bargainingpower at all."

He said the PQ would prepare Quebecers for independence in its first, four-year mandate, and then the 2022 provincial election would centre around the question of sovereignty.

'You scare them, Mr. Legault'

Immigration, a hot-button issue throughout this election campaign, proved contentious again in the final half-hour of Thursday's debate.

The leaders were asked how many newcomers they would bring to Quebec.

Lise said the PQ wouldn't put forward an exact number, but insisted no newcomers would leave the province under a PQ government. Couillard and Mass said they would keep the number steady, at around 50,000 immigrants annually, while Legault reiterated CAQ would lower that figure to 40,000 immigrants per year.

"We have an extraordinary country, with extraordinary resources, with very welcoming people. We need the means to integrate people," said Mass, who said the focus should be on properly funding ways to integrate newcomers.

'You scare them, Mr. Legault'

6 years ago

Duration 0:23

Responding to CAQ Leader Franois Legault's allegation that he tolerates Liberal members calling Legault a racist, Philippe Couillard retorted some people think that because Legault scares them.

Legault defended one of his party's most contentious promises: to subject all newcomers to a French-language test after three years in the province.

"We're not talking about expelling citizens," he said, attempting to clarify CAQ's position. "We're talking about expelling people who are not yet citizens."

Legault also used the word "illegals" to describe some asylum seekers who have come into the country.

He asked Couillard to apologize for a Liberal party candidate who accused the CAQ of being a racist party.

"You tolerate people who say whatever they want about the CAQ," he charged.

Couillard pushed back, asking his rival if he knows why some people feel that way about the party.

"You know why people react that way? Because you scare them, Mr. Legault," Couillard said. "These families these men, these women and these children who are listening to you you scare them."

Next up: Monday's English debate

Thursday'sdebate washosted by Radio-Canada's Patrice Roy.

This is the first of three leaders' debates. There will be two more next week, including, for the first time,a televisedEnglish-language debate on Monday.

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