There is plenty of analysis on the performance of the various party leaders in last night’s French language debate.

Dalhousie University political scientist Lori Turnbull says many were watching Liberal Leader Mark Carney, whose French language skills have come under scrutiny.

Turnbull says Carney kept his responses brief, but his command of the language appears to have improved.

She says Carney came out “pretty unscathed” and that his French language skills have improved from the Liberal leadership debate when “his French was a lot shakier than it was last night” although she says he did keep his responses brief.

In the meantime, Turnbull says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is much more comfortable in the French language, and while he got his points across, his overall performance wasn’t as good as it could have been.

“He ended up getting cornered a lot by the smaller parties,” Turnbull observed, “especially Jagmeet Singh. I don’t know why Singh decided to spend his time attacking Poilievre, but he did. And, it was kind of effective. Instead of spending his time attacking Carney, which is where the NDP are losing their votes, he goes after Poilievre about stuff like pipelines and climate?”

The English language debate takes place tonight at 8:30 Newfoundland time.

Earlier story

The leaders of Canada’s major political parties will debate again tonight as Canadians prepare to head to the polls in less than two weeks.

The four leaders took part in a French language debate in Montreal last evening, and will make their pitch to voters in English tonight.

The Green Party has been barred from participating in the debates after failing to secure candidates in the required number of ridings.

Tonight’s debate takes place at 8:30 p.m. NST.