There are two last chances for Chrystia Freeland. They are also two tests that could blow up Mark Carney’s front-running campaign. The Liberal Party’s two leadership debates, Monday and Tuesday, are the only possible game-changers left.

Ms. Freeland’s glimmer of hope is that this race isn’t mathematically locked up the way the 2022 Conservative leadership was two months before the results were official, when Pierre Poilievre’s organizers had already signed up enough party members to ensure victory.

Ms. Freeland’s problem is that it isn’t enough for her to be good in the debates. She also needs Mr. Carney to be bad.

Even with all the scripting and rehearsing that must have gone into the former Bank of Canada governor’s preparations, there is still room for a crash.

Mr. Carney is the front runner, but he is easily the least fluent French speaker of the four remaining candidates – including Burlington MP Karina Gould and former Montreal MP Frank Baylis. His problem is not so much that he can’t express his point but that sometimes he can’t follow the........

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