![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\")
<\/p>\nThe two candidates vying to replace Fran\u00e7ois Legault as Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec leader and Quebec premier faced off over language and immigration in a heated final debate north of Montreal on Saturday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bernard Drainville and Christine Fr\u00e9chette exchanged friendly greetings ahead of the start of the debate in Laval.<\/p>\n
However, the debate grew fiery as Drainville repeatedly accused Fr\u00e9chette of hesitation when it comes to protecting the province\u2019s language and taking a firm stance on immigration.<\/p>\n
As an example, he said she had not immediately called for the resignation Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau after he delivered an English-only message of condolence following a crash that killed two pilots at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the defence of French, we can\u2019t allow ourselves to have a premier that hesitates, that prevaricates,\u201d Drainville told the room, drawing cheers from his supporters and boos from Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
Drainville also accused Fr\u00e9chette of having initially failed to call for the closure of Roxham Road, which was used by thousands of asylum seekers to enter Canada from the United States before being closed to irregular migration in 2023.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette, who was immigration minister at the time, accused Drainville of misrepresenting her stance on both issues.<\/p>\n
She defended her record on immigration, saying she had been involved in the negotiations around a deal that was reached with the United States to turn away asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings and ultimately shut the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the only one here who got results in the area of immigration,\u201d she said. Fr\u00e9chette also said she had called on Air Canada\u2019s board to remove Rousseau from his role.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n
She also fired back at Drainville after the debate, suggesting that he, and not herself, was the \u201cweather vane\u201d whose opinions shift with the winds of public opinion. She noted her rival once ran for the leadership of the sovereigntist Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, and accused him of changing his mind on a range of issues including private involvement in health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you compare his type of mindset and mine, we are completely different,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cHe went (from) one extreme to another, changing his mind throughout the years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The debate topics included health and social services, education, security, housing and homelessness, and immigration and identity.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette, a former economy minister, and Drainville, a former environment minister, are the only two candidates running to replace Legault, who announced in January he was stepping down as leader.<\/p>\n
The winner of the leadership contest will be announced April 12. That person will become premier until the fall general election scheduled for October.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two candidates vying to replace Fran\u00e7ois Legault as Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec leader and Quebec premier faced off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,218648,295,906,16622,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-567928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-caq-debate","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-quebec","13":"tag-quebec-politics","14":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}