Four key moments from the party leaders during Thursday night’s debate

“I won’t take lessons on caucus management from you”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green party Leader Annamie Paul debated the issue of sexual misconduct in the military.

Paul swiftly went after Trudeau’s claim to be a feminist, saying that if he was, he wouldn’t have sidelined so many women in his caucus and cabinet — a reference to two former cabinet ministers and one former MP.

But Trudeau struck back, telling Paul he’d take no lessons from her, a reference to the infighting within the Green party that nearly saw Paul booted from her job.

Paul alluded to needing to crawl over broken glass to get to the debate stage Thursday night, and fielded questions about the issue several times over the course of the evening. “If you want to get the Michaels home, you do not simply lob tomatoes across the Pacific.”

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has taken a hard line on China for years, and has called for harsh sanctions against Chinese officials in response to the ongoing detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in the country.

But beyond sanctions, he’s advanced few ideas on how he’d get them out. Now that he’s within striking distance of the Prime Minister’s Office, he’s been facing more questions on the issue.

Those came again during the debate, and O’Toole repeated his calls, castigating Trudeau for not working harder to secure their release.

Trudeau noted he’s got all of Canada’s G7 allies onside, and that other likeminded countries have raised the issue with Chinese officials, and tossed the barb out at O’Toole. “You’re talking about the future, let’s talk about right now.”

Trudeau spent much of the night defending his record, and the debate got particularly heated on the topic of climate change, which came up in several pointed questions.

One testy exchange came between Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, both of whom are making a political play for progressive voters, for many of whom climate change is top of mind.

Trudeau is pushing his party’s climate agenda, which recently upgraded Canada’s emissions target to at least 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, but the Liberals have been hammered for the fact they’re nowhere near the path to achieving it.

It was on that point that Singh needled Trudeau, saying his future plan is one thing, but he’s not doing enough now. “It seems all too often that reconciliation is treated like a buffet.”

Paul tossed out zinger after zinger, chastising the Liberals for not following through on promises, especially in the context of the calls to action from Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, which she accused Trudeau of cherry-picking from.

That theme was echoed by Singh when he said Trudeau can’t “take a knee” at a Black Lives Matter protest one day, and take Indigenous kids to court the next — a reference to a long-running lawsuit related to the provision of Indigenous children’s services.