TORONTO – Rogers’-owned weekly news magazine Maclean’s is offering Canadians the first opportunity to hear from all major federal party leaders in a nationally televised debate in the lead up to this fall’s federal election.
Scheduled for August 6 from 8:00 to 10:00 PM ET, the debate will air commercial-free on City, OMNI.1, OMNI.2, and CPAC, with live streaming on Macleans.ca, Citytv.com, CityNews.ca, OMNItv.ca, CPAC.ca, Facebook, and YouTube, according to Monday’s announcement. Rogers Radio news stations will also carry the debate live on 680News.com, 570news.com, 660News.com, 1310News.com, News1130.com, and News957.com. For multilingual audiences, OMNI Television's coverage will be translated into Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Punjabi, while CPAC's coverage will be in both French and English.
Maclean's added that it has also entered into a partnership with Facebook to increase awareness and engagement among Canadians across the country, noting that more than 20 million Canadians are on Facebook.
Moderated by Maclean's political editor Paul Wells, the party leaders will debate on issues including the economy, energy and the environment, the health of Canada's democratic institutions, and foreign policy and security. Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, National Democratic Party leaderThomas Mulcair, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, and Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, have all confirmed their attendance.
The debate marks the first event that will feature all federal party leaders. The Conservative party said last month that it would forgo the traditional leaders debates on television to instead take part in as many as five independently staged debates
"Canadians are facing an important choice for the country's future in the upcoming election," said Rogers Publishing SVP Steve Maich, in the announcement. "Our goal is to start this most important conversation and to help shed light on the key issues on the minds of Canadians as they prepare to cast their ballots."
