CBC’s federal leaders debates see massive viewership gains over 2021

French-language streaming audience grew 476% over last federal leaders' debate four years ago.
By Patti Summerfield
April 22, 2025

The Canadian French and English federal leaders’ debates on CBC platforms April 16 and 17 attracted strong audiences, exceeding those of the last federal debates in September 2021. For the French-language debate, a whopping 1.26 million Canadians tuned in to CBC News Network, an audience more than double that for the French-language debate in 2021.

The debates featured Liberal leader Mark Carney, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. A focal point of the debates was how the leaders would respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff threats – an issue that appears to have galvanized Canadian voters. 

On April 16, the average minute French-language audience of Canadians aged two-plus was 458,000, 285% higher than the 2021 audience of 119,000. On cbcnews.ca, streams increased by 476% compared to 2021 while live views on CBC News’ YouTube channel were up 80% vs the 2021 French debate.

The English-language debate airing on CBC the next day on April 17 was the most-watched primetime program in Canada on that day. More than 2.6 million Canadians tuned in to CBC and CBC News Network. CBC and CBC News Network drew a combined two-plus average minute audience of 1.24 million. That’s a 29% increase compared to the broadcast of the last English-language federal leaders’ debate in 2021.

The radio broadcast of the English-language debate on CBC Radio drew an audience 850,000 Canadians, an increase of 80 per cent compared to the 2021 debate. Online there were three million unique visitors to cbcnews.ca and the CBC News App. Video views up 85% from 2021.

The English debate was also streamed more than 700,000 times across cbcnews.ca, the CBC News app, CBC Gem, CBC News YouTube and CBC News TikTok. On the YouTube channel, the English debate livestream captured 384,700 total views and was the second-highest livestream by watch time since the beginning of the year, after then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on Feb. 1.