UPDATE 1-Rivals accuse Canadian PM of pushing ban on veils to win votes

(Adds controversy over Quebec separation, pollster's reaction,
paragraphs 11-15)
By Randall Palmer and David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Canada's two main opposition
leaders accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an election
debate on Thursday of trying to win votes by pushing a ban on
Muslim women's face coverings during citizenship ceremonies.
Harper's Conservatives, locked in a tight race with the New
Democrats and the Liberals ahead of an Oct. 19 election, say
people wishing to become Canadians must show their faces.
Polls indicate the proposal is popular in the predominantly
French-speaking province of Quebec, where there are
long-standing tensions over how tolerant Quebecers should be
toward the customs and traditions of immigrants.
Quebec accounts for 23 percent of the seats in the House of
Commons, second only to Ontario. The Conservatives hold just
five seats in Quebec, where Thursday's French-language debate
took place.
The minority separatist Bloc Quebecois party of Gilles
Duceppe - trying to revive its fortunes after being crushed in
the last election in 2011 - supports Harper's idea.
Both main opposition parties say the ban violates the rights
of Canadians, and accuse the Conservatives of fueling prejudice.
"Mr. Harper and Mr. Duceppe want to play on fear and
division," Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said. "If a man can't
dictate how a woman should dress, we can't have the state
telling a woman how she shouldn't dress."
Duceppe questioned how it could be divisive when the Quebec
legislature was unanimous on the issue, and 90 percent of Quebec
citizens agreed on the ban.
Thomas Mulcair of the New Democrats said Harper was trying
to hide his poor economic record behind a niqab.
"Mr. Mulcair, never, I will never say to my daughter that a
woman must cover herself up because she is a woman," Harper shot
back angrily.
Fireworks also erupted over the question of how easy it
should be for Quebec to separate. Mulcair said it was "the
fundamental rule of democracy" that one vote over 50 percent was
enough.
Trudeau noted the New Democrats' rules require more than a
simple majority of members to change the party's name in its
constitution.
"But to tear Canada's constitution in half, he claims that a
single vote would be enough," he said.
Quebec came within one percentage point of splitting in a
1995 referendum but the Supreme Court subsequently stated that
secession would require a "clear majority".
Leger pollster Christian Bourque said he saw no knockout
blows in the debate but said the niqab issue played into
Harper's favor.