Liberal leadership candidates to face off in first of 2 debates Monday

Candidates vying to be the next leader of the federal Liberals and Canada's prime minister will square off in a French-language debate in Montreal tonight.

Four contenders cleared their final financial hurdle last week and will be on the ballot to replace the outgoing leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

They are Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada; Chrystia Freeland, former finance minister and deputy prime minister; Karina Gould, former House leader and Frank Baylis, former Liberal MP.  A fifth would-be candidate, Ruby Dhalla, was disqualified from the race on Friday. The former MP is appealing that decision.

Monday's debate will be followed by an English-language debate on Tuesday. The debates will be the only time all four candidates share a stage before Liberals elect their new leader on March 9.

Former TVA-Québec anchor Pierre Jobin will moderate the French leadership debate and former CBC News host Hannah Thibedeau will moderate the English one.

On Saturday morning, the Liberal Party released the topics for the debate. Candidates will discuss Canada-U.S. relations, growing Canada's economy, protecting the environment while securing Canada's energy future, affordability, housing, health care and other issues.

Carney appears to be the front-runner in the race so far, having secured the most donations and Liberal caucus endorsements.

The former Bank of Canada governor has dropped hints about the policies he'd bring in, including: a cut to middle-class taxes, scrapping the Trudeau government's capital gains tax changes, increasing defence spending to hit the NATO target by 2030 and a "boost" to the incomes of young Canadians. But many of his proposals have also been void of specifics.

Carney has been pitching himself to voters as an economically minded leader who can guide Canada through a potentially tumultuous period spurred by the threat of U.S. tariffs.

Freeland spent much of the early days of the campaign distancing herself from Trudeau policies that she previously had a hand in as finance minister. She has promised to ditch the consumer carbon tax and the government's changes to the capital gains tax.

Freeland — who led Canada's response to U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term — has presented herself to voters as a tested negotiator to take on the president once again.

Gould has focused much of her campaign on addressing affordability concerns. She's promised to widen the eligibility for Canada's employment insurance system, introduce a universal basic income program and temporarily cut the GST to four per cent for one year.

The 37-year-old has presented herself as a younger, "fresh" voice for the party, who listens to the grassroots.

Baylis has said he would reform government by introducing term limits for MPs and senators, build LNG pipelines, invest in green technology and energy efficiency and work with the provinces to modernize health-care delivery using artificial intelligence.