The final leaders' debate in Quebec may have simply solidified the opinions of voters as the election day of April 7 approaches.
But it might have also been a catalyst for yet more change in this roller-coaster campaign.
Leading in the polls, Philippe Couillard of the Liberals was the target of most attacks during TVA's event. He deflected some of them well but others were less ably repulsed.
But it was not Pauline Marois of the Parti Québécois who caused Couillard the most damage.
François Legault desperately needed to do something to turn the campaign around for his Coalition Avenir Québec party. He failed to do so in last week's debate, when he seemed listless and spoke for the least amount of time of the four leaders.
Last night, however, Legault was energetic and forceful, and imposed himself on the debate. He went after Couillard very strongly on the Liberal leader's past relationship with Arthur Porter, who is facing fraud charges, and was equally hard on Marois in terms of what he called the "electoralism" of the PQ's approach to the secular charter.
Québec Solidaire's Françoise David might have done the most damage to Couillard on the question of the French language and his holding of an account in a tax haven during the 1990s.
David was incredulous to hear Couillard's assertion that even a factory-floor worker should be bilingual, and both Legault and Marois expressed disbelief at having heard what they called such a weak defence of the French language in Quebec.
While it was the kind of sequence that would cause the Liberals no trouble among their core base, it might make it very difficult for the party to hold on to those francophone voters who have recently drifted over to the party from the CAQ and PQ.
David had another good debate in which she kept above the fray, but as the format forced her to talk more about QS's economic policy, it may have deflated hopes of a major breakthrough. Last week, David scored points as the social conscience of Quebecers. On Thursday, she may have lost points as she described the left-wing policies a QS government would implement.
That could boost the PQ, but Marois' performance was middling.
The PQ leader was much less dominant in terms of airtime than she was the previous week and seemed to have made efforts to be less frenetic in her responses.
Marois was able to avoid the topic of a third referendum to a greater extent than her previous outing, and was even more dismissive of the possibility of another sovereignty vote taking place. But she was cornered by Legault on the question of partisan nominations. Overall, she did little to either hurt or help her party.
It does not seem likely, however, that Couillard did his Liberals any favours. The talk of Porter and tax havens required Couillard to explain himself — which he did well enough. He did nothing legally wrong on both issues, but his judgment was put into doubt on the former and his ethics on the latter. Defending himself meant lost time.
Whereas Marois had been on the defensive last week, Couillard was thrust into that position Thursday night.
Though he came off as confident and did well on the topic of a potential referendum, Couillard may have done himself serious damage among francophone voters when it comes to the French language and, to a lesser extent, the secular charter.
Legault and the CAQ could be bigger beneficiaries than the PQ but it's possible he may have overplayed his hand with his aggressiveness.
Still, every vote that slips from the Liberals to the CAQ improves the relative position of the Parti Québécois.
Will it be enough?
Éric Grenier taps The Pulse of federal and regional politics for Huffington Post Canada readers every week. Grenier is the author of ThreeHundredEight.com, covering Canadian politics, polls and electoral projections. You can pre-order his eBook, "Tapping into the Pulse", a retrospective of polling in 2013, here
Also on HuffPost
