Global News – Decision 2008 – News

Lone Tory loser not ready to concede his Alta. riding

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:37:00 GMT

By Darcy Henton
Canwest News Service

Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer is waiting for the preliminary results of his stunning election loss to be confirmed. (Shaughn Butts/Canwest News Service)

EDMONTON - Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer is waiting for the preliminary results of his stunning election loss in his Edmonton riding to be confirmed by Elections Canada before commenting on his fate, a party spokesman said Wednesday afternoon.

William McBeath said Jaffer, who has represented the riding of Edmonton-Strathcona in the House of Commons since 1997, is reviewing the results of Tuesday's vote with Elections Canada officials before meeting with reporters.

"Whenever it's a close result of less than 1,000, members of both sides go in and review the poll votes," McBeath said. "It's not unusual. Following the election, particularly when it's close, you want to make sure everything is done in an appropriate manner."

Based on Tuesday's tally, Jaffer appears to have lost his seat to the NDP's Linda Duncan by 442 votes, but Elections Canada says the result is "preliminary" until it can be verified.

Duncan's victory, which didn't become apparent until almost all the votes had been tallied, was all that stood in the way of a Conservative sweep of all 28 Alberta ridings.

Elections Canada spokesman David Rutherford said officials are "validating the vote" - a process that's standard procedure in all ridings.

"That means checking it, counting it and checking all the numbers."

McBeath said the process underway "is definitely not a recount," but Jaffer could decide to pursue that option through the courts after the results are validated.

Rutherford said judicial recounts are triggered automatically when the number of votes separating the winner from the second-place finisher is less than one thousandth of the number of votes cast.

Based on that formula, an automatic judicial recount would have been triggered if Jaffer had lost by fewer than 47 votes.

Tory ridings encroach on Canada's biggest cities

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:37:00 GMT

By Norma Greenaway
Canwest News Service

The Tories made gains this election in cities such as Toronto. (Merle Robillard/Canwest News Service)

OTTAWA - After Tuesday's election, Stephen Harper has the country's two biggest cities of Vancouver and Toronto surrounded by a thicker wall of Tory MPs than he's ever built, even though he failed to capture a single seat in their urban cores.

Political analyst David Mitchell describes the development as striking, and says the Tory breakthroughs in the suburban ridings of those rich election prizes bode well for the Conservative party's chances of swapping its minority government for a majority next time Canadians go to the polls.

"They certainly have laid a very strong foundation for their ultimate assault on urban Canada," said Mitchell, a political historian at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and a former Independent B.C. politician.

"Step by step, they are becoming the only party in the land today that actually is a national party, that not only has strength in every region, but also within those regions and provinces - rural, suburban and urban."

The ruling Conservatives emerged from the election with a minority government boasting a net gain of 16 seats, climbing to 143 from the 127 they held when the election was called.

Surveying the political landscape on Wednesday, the prime minister indicated he was heartened by the party's enhanced reach into suburban and urban Canada.

"We've actually broadened the nature of our vote, which is very encouraging," he told reporters in Calgary.

Of the 143 MPs, an analysis done for Canwest News Service by Punditsguide.ca says 24 of the new Tory MPs hail from the sprawling communities that circle Vancouver and Toronto, as well as from such smaller cities as Kitchener, Ont., and Saint John and Fredericton in New Brunswick where Liberals fell to Tories.

The party failed to score in the city of Montreal, although it managed to hang on to 10 of the 11 seats they had in Quebec going into the election. Conservatives also finished second in 24 of the province's 75 ridings, a handful of those in Montreal and its suburbs.

In British Columbia, the Conservatives won 22 seats, picking up five new ridings and pumping their popular vote up to 44 per cent from 37 per cent in the 2006 election.

The only no-go zone for the Tories was the City of Vancouver, which ended up electing three Liberals and two New Democrats.

Still, in a development that has Tories cheering, the Conservatives finished a strong second in three of those seats, all of which were close.

Four of the Tories five pickups were won in the Vancouver suburbs of Surrey, Richmond, West Vancouver and North Vancouver where two Liberal and two NDP seats were wiped out.

Mitchell said the Tory gains in the heavily ethnic suburbs of Vancouver, as well as Toronto, were likely due to the Conservatives' aggressive outreach efforts to new Canadians and the party's conservative economic and social platform.

Ontario, the biggest electoral prize on the map, proved more fertile for Harper than ever before.

The party boosted its popular vote in 90 of the 106 ridings, and gained 10 seats to elect 51 MPs, none of whom come from the Greater Toronto Area.

The Liberals won 19 of the city's 21 seats, while NDP power couple of Jack Layton and Olivia Chow took the other two.

Voters in the notorious 905 suburbs of Toronto turned away from the Liberals, allowing Tories to capture the western bedroom communities of Mississauga-Erindale and Oakville, and the northern suburban ridings of Newmarket-Aurora, Oak Ridges and Thornhill.

The Conservatives also stole the Ontario ridings of London West from the Liberals, along with the two Kitchener seats.

Mitchell said the election shows how significantly the Conservatives have broadened their base since the 2004 merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative party.

"The Conservatives have gone from being primarily a rural-based party, based on the old Reform-Alliance foundation, to a suburban- and rural-based party with strong support around the major urban centres," he said.

Reform Senate or we'll appoint Conservatives, Harper warns

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:28:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking in Calgary Oct. 15, says he's ready to start appointing senators if the Liberals oppose his plans to reform the Senate. (Dean Bicknell/ Calgary Herald)

CALGARY - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday he is ready to start appointing new senators to reflect his Conservative agenda if the Liberal-dominated upper house continues to be a thorn in the government's side.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference the morning after his election victory, Harper reiterated that his party would like to abolish the Senate if his proposed reforms to the Red Chamber don't pass.

He said he hopes to appoint senators through his proposal to have provinces nominate candidates chosen by voters. But if that doesn't happen, he is prepared to appoint his own choices to correct what he sees as a Liberal bias in the upper house.

"We don't believe an unelected body should in any way be blocking an elected body," said Harper. "I have held off for a very long time in naming senators."

"That said, I do not believe it is justified that the Senate would continue to be dominated by a party that did not win two consecutive elections. So look, we are looking for the opportunity to elect senators, but if at some point it becomes clear some senators are not going to be elected, the government will name senators to ensure that the elected will of the House of Commons and the people of Canada is reflected in the Senate."

During the coming days, the prime minister will also put together a new cabinet for the return of Parliament, which will reconvene next month.

Harper caused controversy after the last election when he appointed Michael Fortier to the Senate and named him public works minister and the party's Montreal lieutenant. However, the prime minister made it clear Wednesday he will not appoint any senators to his cabinet.

Meanwhile, Harper said he is willing to bury the hatchet with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, whose Anything But Conservative campaign wiped the Tories off the map in that province.

"We're obviously disappointed with the results there. That said, I have no trouble saying (let) bygones be bygones. As many of you know, I constructed an entire party out of people who once opposed me."

Harper said he was "pleased" with the results of the election and that his party made important breakthroughs, especially among women voters and in the battleground areas of Toronto and Vancouver.

His party is returning to the House of Commons with 143 MPs, up from the 127 it had when Parliament was dissolved. Harper's Conservatives captured 37.6 per cent of the popular vote, compared to the Liberals' 26.2 per cent.

Liberals asked to give Dion time to decide future after painful loss

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:27:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Dion insiders said the 53-year-old Montreal MP faces an agonizing decision on whether to bow to requests to resign. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberals have been asked to give Stephane Dion respect and breathing room while he decides whether to go gracefully or put up a fight for his leadership in the aftermath of his party's losses at the polls.

"If there is any message I want to send out to Liberals it is to treat Stephane with enormous respect," Senator David Smith, a national Liberal campaign co-chairman, said in an interview Wednesday.

Dion insiders said the 53-year-old Montreal MP faces an agonizing decision on whether to bow to requests from some Liberals to quickly signal that he will resign, allowing for a graceful exit, or to stick with his determined vow in the closing days of the campaign that "I am not a quitter."

The Liberals have an automatic post-election leadership review scheduled for May, but Liberals could leapfrog straight to a leadership contest sooner than that if Dion steps down.

Smith, a veteran of Liberal campaigns dating back to Pierre Trudeau's era, suggested Dion's decision is not solely his to make, but is a matter of "consensus" in the party.

However, he suggested that rivals to Dion's leadership should keep a lid on it in the meantime. He did not name anyone but it's an open secret that deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Toronto MP Bob Rae, top contenders for the leadership that Dion won in December 2006, have been waiting in the wings for another try.

"I think that anybody who does any pushing is not a Liberal family team member," Smith said. "That's not what we need. We want to be supportive of his situation and he'll come to his own conclusions, whatever they might be."

Smith said he believes "the Liberal brand is still strong" despite the loss of 19 seats, and a poor showing of 26 per cent of the popular vote. Toronto "remains a fort" for the party, who won 76 of 308 seats Tuesday.

Smith denied assertions from some within Dion's entourage that it was the party who let Dion down in a campaign in which he struggled against multi-million-dollar Conservative ads portraying him as a weak leader and casting the Green Shift as a tax grab.

He said it is a matter of public knowledge that some Liberal caucus members had "reservations" about the Green Shift plan to impose a carbon tax and redistribute the revenue through tax cuts.

"But having said all that, people weren't leaving him on a little island or anything like that," Smith said. "I mean we made a commitment and we stuck with it."

He spoke as Dion burned up the phone lines in a private day of calling Liberal candidates, winners and losers, to deliver commiseration and congratulations and to discuss his future with some of them.

Dion rejected advice from some Liberals on election night to immediately announce his resignation as Paul Martin did in 2006, when his minority Liberal government was defeated by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who prevailed again this time with another minority government.

Dion was not prepared to make such a dramatic move because he was reeling from the election outcome, having been told only shortly before the polls closed that the Liberals were about to take a hit. He was protected from the bad news to keep him pumped during a final cross-Canada sprint on election eve to ridings where Liberal candidates were in big trouble.

"He poured his heart out," Smith said. "And I think it was frustrating for him that a lot of Canadians just didn't understand the environmental initiative that he was proposing."

Controversy aside, Calgary MP makes it three in a row

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:18:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Calgary Centre Conservative MP Lee Richardson got re-elected, despite controversial remarks he made about immigrants during the campaign. (Stuart Gradon/Calgary Herald)

CALGARY - A controversy that attracted national attention didn't derail Lee Richardson's political aspirations as the Conservative party candidate cruised to a third straight federal election victory Tuesday.

Richardson handily won his re-election bid in the inner-city riding of Calgary Centre, brushing aside both his competitors and a brief uproar that followed comments he made linking immigrants and crime.

What was expected to be a quiet campaign for Richardson ended up generating a lot of noise after Richardson, 60, gave an interview with a weekly newspaper.

When asked about recent gun violence in Calgary, he blamed the problems on minorities -then later said his comments were misinterpreted.

The interview attracted calls from Liberal Leader Stephane Dion for Richardson to be fired, and forced Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to defend the incumbent.

May appeals for financial help to build up party profile

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:59:00 GMT

By Richard Foot
Canwest News Service

Green Leader Elizabeth May issued a blatant plea on Wedensday for money to help prepare the party for the next election. (Paul Darrow/Reuters)

NEW GLASGOW, N.S. - The day after she and her party failed to win a seat in the House of Commons, Green Leader Elizabeth May issued a blatant plea for money to help prepare the party for the next election.

"I'm opportunistically asking Canadians to just get out there and give us the money," she said Wednesday.

"Go to our website and make a donation... please help me out here folks."

May said the Greens spent $4 million on the campaign, half of which was borrowed money. She hopes to pay at least $1 million of that back before Christmas.

The party will receive roughly $1.8 million in federal funding for the more than 940,000 votes it obtained in the election - nearly double the subsidy the Greens received after the 2006 vote.

But May said she wants to use the subsidy not to repay the Greens' debt but to build the party's profile and advance its issues between now and the next election.

She will be hobbled in that effort by not having a seat in Parliament, but May said Canadians can still expect her to have a presence there in the coming years, watching the debate unfold from the public galleries of the House of Commons.

On election night May lost her bid to unseat Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay in his longtime Nova Scotia riding. She also lost her party's only sitting MP, former Liberal Blair Wilson, who was defeated in British Columbia.

"I'll unfortunately be taking up my position in the front row of the diplomatic gallery instead of on the (Commons) floor," she said.

"A political leader has to assume the responsibilities of leadership, and that means being on the Hill, watching the dismal spectacle below, and trying as best as possible to put forward an alternative view."

She reiterated her vow on Tuesday to seek a Commons seat in the first possible byelection, but also to run again against MacKay in the next general election.

In the coming months May will also be debuting her new book, Global Warming for Dummies, which she hopes will keep climate change on the public agenda.

May also had kind words for Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, whose own leadership is now in question, but whom May supported during the campaign as her favoured choice for prime minister.

And she lashed out at the CTV network for broadcasting Dion's infamous stumbling over questions posed by the network in the final week of the campaign.

"Decency in politics is a rare thing," she said. "There are few people I've ever met in political life I admire as much as Stephane Dion. He's been treated shabbily. I think replaying re-asked questions in a second language over the national media is despicable.

"Mr. Dion reminds me very much of Robert Stanfield and I think we may well decide in the future to describe him as the best prime minister we never had."

Tone down Tory agenda in new Parliament, Layton tells PM

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:31:00 GMT

By Mike De Souza
Canwest News Service

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton says Stephen Harper should remember that more Canadians voted against him than for him and as such, he should be accommodating to the wishes of the opposition parties. (Tyler Anderson/National Post)

TORONTO - NDP Leader Jack Layton warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday to tone down his Conservative agenda, show more flexibility and focus on the concerns of ordinary Canadians if he wants the new minority Parliament to get things done.

"I would call on the prime minister to abandon the tactic and approach that he used in the last Parliament - `My way or the highway,"' Layton told reporters at a Bay Street hotel in Toronto. "I think he should realize that far more Canadians voted against his government than voted for it. He should respect Parliament and respect the results of the election and we'll proceed in the recognition of that fact."

Layton did not highlight specific elements of the Conservative agenda that should be changed to make the new Parliament work, but acknowledged that the NDP's positions are well known on controversial issues such as Harper's plan to toughen youth criminal justice legislation.

He also said that he would urge Harper to support NDP proposals to increase funding for training workers through strategic investments that would provide incentives for companies to create and retain Canadian jobs.

"We've got to knuckle down immediately on behalf of Canadians and focus on the economic turbulence that we're facing and on the issues of what I've called in this election `the real economy,"' Layton said.

Layton also called on the government to be transparent about the state of Canada's economy and any details it knows about potential weaknesses in Canadian banks as a result of global economic turmoil.

"There has been speculation and discussion in the media about the situation of the banks and I think it's very important for that discussion to be held with the leaders of the parties and for Canadians to be fully informed as to what's taking place," Layton said. "Elsewhere in the world there is a very open and public discussion of these matters and it's time that took place here and now."

Layton acknowledged that the New Democrats had not succeeded in his goal of forming a government. But, he said, he is still working, step by step, on a plan to become prime minister following breakthroughs for the NDP in Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec, where the party elected an MP in a general election for the first time in its history.

"I'm very satisfied that we were successful in putting the issues of everyday families onto the agenda of the election and I think that that was a very important thing to do," Layton said. "Of course, we still have some more work to do before I will be able to succeed in the campaign to become prime minister."

"We will be able to build on the foundation of the results today and we have no intention of abandoning that project. In fact, we're in a stronger position to pursue it now with some important new seats that we've been able to win."

The party also saw its support grow in several industrial regions of Ontario that have been suffering the effects of a downturn in the forestry and manufacturing sectors. The election results also suggest that the New Democrats have moved past the Liberals as the second-most popular party for Canadians who live west of Toronto.

Overall, the NDP gained seven seats and improved its share of the popular vote by just under one per cent of the vote, to 18 per cent of voter support.

Layton added that he was disappointed in the decreasing voter turnout, suggesting that it's another reason to introduce electoral reform and a proportional voting system.

Tories protest voting irregularities in Manitoba riding

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

WINNIPEG - The Conservatives will file a formal complaint with Elections Canada, alleging a series of voting-day irregularities in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood Transcona that could have cost Thomas Steen a chance at winning the seat.

Manitoba Tory campaign spokeswoman Marni Larkin said party lawyers were reviewing the matter Wednesday and would file a written protest later in the day.

"We were working very hard there, and we are not just going to roll over," Larkin said.

Among the alleged problems in the Tory complaint are a ballot box that went missing, voters being told they had already voted, even though they hadn't, and officials putting ballots in the box, even though no voters were in the room.

"There were a lot of irregularities throughout the day and, when that happens, it is a red flag," she said.

NDP candidate Jim Maloway won the seat, beating Steen by 1,600 votes.

An Elections Canada spokeswoman was unable to comment on the Tory allegations Wednesday morning.

Bloc leader urges quick return to Parliament

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:03:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters at a news conference in Montreal Oct. 15 that Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to recall Parliament soon. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads a minority government and shouldn't forget it, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Wednesday as he called on the Conservative leader to recall Parliament as soon as possible.

Speaking to reporters the morning after his sovereigntist party won 50 of Quebec's 75 seats, Duceppe also urged Harper to work constructively with other parties so that MPs can deal with the problems facing Canada's economy.

While Harper said Tuesday night that he had a stronger mandate to govern, Duceppe said English Canada may have given the majority of its seats to him, but Quebec gave the majority of its seats to the Bloc.

"I call on Mr. Harper to respect the democratic will of Quebecers by governing with openness and by making compromises. That is the mandate that he was given. I expect the prime minister to head a government that is less partisan, less authoritarian and which listens more to the population."

Duceppe laid out a shopping list of steps he wants to see the Conservatives take, including reversing the cuts to arts funding and local economic development groups made by his government.

If Harper goes ahead with his campaign promise of toughening up the youth offenders law, Quebec should be able to opt out of the "repressive" new provisions, Duceppe said.

As for Harper's decision to recognize Quebec as a nation, Duceppe said he wants to see the government prove it is not simply a symbolic recognition with measures such as allowing language laws to apply to workplaces in Quebec that fall under federal labour law such as banks, transportation and telecommunications companies.

Duceppe would not pledge to keep Harper's government alive and give it a chance to govern for a predetermined period, saying he will decide on a case-by-case basis whether it is in Quebec's best interests to support any given government initiative. If something is not in Quebec's best interests, he won't hesitate to vote against it, even if it brings down Harper's new government, he said.

Asked about his party's drop in popular vote and its inability to dislodge several Conservative MPs - particularly in the Quebec City and Saguenay-Lac St. Jean regions - Duceppe preferred to focus on the fact that his party won two-thirds of the seats in Quebec and deprived the Conservatives of a majority government.

While the attempts by the Conservatives to woo Quebec over the past two years, pouring millions of dollars into the province and recognizing the Quebecois as a nation, didn't garner the Conservatives any more seats than they got in the last election, Duceppe said Quebec is just getting its share of the money it pays Ottawa and it wouldn't be right for the Conservatives to start ignoring Quebec's needs.

"That wouldn't be responsible. Stephen Harper came (to Quebec) in the last 48 hours saying how much he loves Quebec. He still loves Quebec this morning, I suppose," he said with a bit of a shrug.

Newfoundland premier declares war with Tories over

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:53:00 GMT

St. John's Telegram

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams says his Anything But Conservative campaign was a success. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams is declaring the battle between his government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper over. Speaking the day after a federal election that saw Harper's Conservative party returned to power with a beefed up minority government, Williams said his ABC - Anything But Conservative - campaign was a success.

"We've achieved our goal," he said Wednesday.

"We've sent a very strong message to the Harper Conservatives that we, in fact, had a role to play in preventing a majority government here."

The Conservatives went into the election with three of the seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador. By the time the polls closed, the party was wiped out, with the Liberals claiming six seats and the NDP taking one.

Fewer than 17 per cent of Newfoundland voters supported the Conservatives in Tuesday's election.

Across the country, the Conservatives took 143 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons.

Williams suggested that if Harper had delivered on his promises, including a written pledge to exclude non-renewable resource revenues from the equalization formula, all seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador could have voted Conservative.

He added that a "ripple effect" would have been felt in other provinces, and the result would likely have been a majority for Harper.

"If there had been a good rapport they possibly could have 150 seats. That would put them in striking distance of a majority," he said.

It's the first time since joining Confederation in 1949 that Newfoundland will not have an MP on the government side of the House.

But Williams is not worried about the lack of representation. He said the three previous government MPs failed to advance major issues such as custodial management of the fishery and a loan guarantee for the Lower Churchill River hydroelectric project in Labrador.

He said the province will now have seven strong Opposition MPs at the federal level.

Fall session of Parliament planned to tackle financial woes

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:48:00 GMT

By Meagan Fitzpatrick
Canwest News Service

Stephen Harper says he will recall Parliament this fall. (Andy Clark/Reuters)

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper, who returned to power with a strengthened minority government Tuesday night, says he will recall Parliament this fall and bring down an economic statement by the end of November as he tackles what he called the No. 1 job of the prime minister - protection of the country's economy.

Criticized by opposition leaders during the campaign for not having an action plan on the economy, Harper outlined six steps Wednesday that he plans to take in the coming weeks.

"The strengthened mandate we received from the people of Canada allows us to continue moving forward," he said during his first post-victory news conference in his home riding of Calgary.

Harper boosted his party's standings in the House of Commons to 143 seats, up from 127, but he was denied the 155 seats needed for a majority. The Conservatives captured 37.6 per cent of the popular vote, compared to the Liberals 26.2 per cent.

The Grits suffered a disappointing loss Tuesday night, dropping to 76 seats from 95 and prompting immediate questions about Stephane Dion's leadership of the party.

Harper said his re-elected finance minister Jim Flaherty and the Bank of Canada are constantly monitoring world markets and "will take appropriate actions" to support the country's financial system.

Harper did not explain what specific measures are being discussed among government and Bank of Canada officials and the Big Five banks. However, the National Post reported this week that the plan could involve such extraordinary measures as government guarantees on bank loans.

"I won't go through the options we are looking at, but let me just say the options we are looking at do not involve a significant outlay of taxpayers' money," Harper said.

As part of his economic action plan, Harper will attend the EU-Canada Summit in Quebec City on Friday, where he will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission president Jose Barroso to discuss economic ties and measures to protect the financial system.

More meetings form several other parts of the plan, Harper said, explaining that Canada will attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Brazil and has called for a follow-up meeting of G7 finance ministers. He also promised to convene a meeting with the provincial and territorial premiers to discuss the global financial crisis. But he said he would not attend a meeting of the provincial leaders on the economy already set for early next week.

Harper also said the government will continue with a four-year "strategic review" of public spending, suggesting more program cuts could be coming down the pipe.

After outlining his next steps, some closely resembling parts of the five-point plan proposed during the election and derided by Harper, the prime minister sought to reassure worried Canadians.

"These are challenging times. Canadians are worried right now and those worries are understandable, but I want to assure Canadians that together we will weather the storm and we will position our economy to emerge stronger than ever," he said.

Harper indicated Wednesday that he wants the forthcoming Parliament to be productive.

"My commitment, as I said last night, to the opposition leaders is to try and find ... some common ground to move the Parliament forward productively, because I know that nobody wants to talk about another election right now," he said.

Nevertheless, the prime minister would not rule out using confidence votes to push his agenda through the House of Commons, as he did in the last session of Parliament.

New Democratic Leader Jack Layton, whose party added seven seats for a total of 37, said Wednesday that Harper must abandon the "my way or the highway" tactic and be more flexible.

"I think he should realize that far more Canadians voted against his government than voted for it. He should respect Parliament and respect the results of the election and we'll proceed in the recognition of that fact," Layton told reporters in Toronto.

Layton said the parties must work co-operatively on economic issues and repeated a request he made during the election that was rebuffed by Harper for all party leaders to meet and be briefed by the government on the country's economic health.

Bloc Quebecois Leader GIlles Duceppe, whose party picked up two seats for a total of 50, also called on Harper to "realize that he doesn't have a majority."

Duceppe told reporters that if Harper continues the strategy of making bills confidence motions, it will show he is not responsible.

"Is he going to continue to trigger elections even though he's passed fixed date election legislation?" said Duceppe.

Dion was laying low on Wednesday and made no public appearances. During a call to Harper on Tuesday evening, however, Dion assured Harper that the economy is also his priority and that his party will co-operate to ensure Canadians are protected.

In the aftermath of Tuesday's results, he was under immense and immediate pressure to signal that he will step aside from the leadership. It is a decision that Dion will not rush, according to members of his inner circle.

Green Leader Elizabeth May, unsuccessful in her attempt to unseat Defence Minister Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia and shut out of the House of Commons , pledged to run again in the riding and asked Canadians for cash to help her party in the next election.

"Go to our website and make a donation... please help me out here folks," May said Wednesday.

The Greens did increase their share of the votes, grabbing 6.8 per cent of the ballots cast compared to 4.2 per cent in 2006.

Elections Canada had fewer ballots to count than ever before in this election, thanks to nearly 10 million eligible voters who didn't venture out on Tuesday to their polling station. According to preliminary figures, Canada recorded its lowest voter turnout in history with only 59.1 per cent of eligible Canadians voting. That breaks the previous low from the 2004 election when 60.9 per cent voted.

With files from Andrew Mayeda, Juiet O'Neill and Mike De Souza

What the Conservatives have promised to do in their next term

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:05:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gives the crowd his thumbs up after giving his acceptance speech to the Conservative gathering Tuesday Oct. 14 at Calgary's Telus Convention Centre. (Ted Rhodes/Calgary Herald)

Jobs, the economy and business:

$60 million annually: for bonuses to apprentices who finish their training.
$60 million over three years: for job retraining for older workers.
$147 million annually: to allow the self-employed into the EI benefits program so they can claim maternity and paternity benefits.
$220 million over four years: to reduce the tax burden on small business.
$200 million over four years: for auto sector.
$200 million over four years: for aerospace sector.
$345 million over four years: the cost to eliminate tariffs on importing machinery for the manufacturing sector.
$600 million annually: to cut the excise tax on diesel and aviation fuel to two cents per litre from four.
Reduce red tape for small business.
Create a new venture capital fund.
New copyright, counterfeiting and piracy laws.
Allow more foreign investment, especially in airlines and uranium mining.
Be able to block foreign takeovers that endanger national security.
Invest in science and technology.
Reduce interprovincial trade and mobility barriers.
Open more trade offices in emerging markets.
Help the forestry, fishing and mining industries.
Facilitate the development of a northern pipeline.

Healthcare:

$20 million over four years: to induce Canadian doctors and nurses to return home to practise.
$15 million over four years: to study the impact of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
$10 million over two years: for respiratory illness.
End discriminatory life insurance practices.
Ban flavoured cigarettes and kid-sized packages of cigarillos.
Ban tobacco advertising in print or electronic media marketed to youth.

Families:

$100 million annually: for changes to the Universal Child Care Benefit.
$150 million over four years: for changes to education savings programs to allow lower-income families to participate.
$80 million annually: for tax relief to allow a spouse to care for a disabled family member.
$420 million annually: for tax relief for seniors.
$200 million annually: for tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
Expand the Disability Savings Plan.

Environment:

$113 million over five years: to enforce environmental laws.
Strengthen the ban on the bulk export of water.
Prevent the export of raw bitumen from the oilsands to countries with lower environmental standards.
Invest in alternative energies.
Work towards a target of 90 per cent electricity from non-emitting sources by 2020.
Strengthen pollution laws in the north.
Create a cap and trade system to cut greenhouse gases.
Create a publicly available database of corporate polluters.
Create more national parks.
Strengthen the environmental protection act to better control toxic chemicals.

Regional development:

$300 million over four years: for regional economic development.
$7 million over three years: for Quebec sea farming and aquaculture industry.
$24 million one-time funding: to expand cruise ship tourism along the St. Lawrence River.
$25 million over five years: to increase funding to TV5, a Quebec-based international French-language television network.
Broaden the areas of Ontario eligible for regional development funding.
Create a regional development agency for the North.
Build a High Arctic research station.

Crime:

$10 million annually beginning next spring: to increase the funding to the Youth Gang Prevention Fund.
Tougher sentences for young offenders who commit violent crimes.
Make it harder to get out on parole.
End house arrest for a long list of offences.
Repeal the "faint hope" clause.
Toughen laws against bikers, gangs and for those who commit drive-by shootings.
Make it possible for victims of terrorist acts to sue for damages.
Mandatory prison sentences for some drug crimes.
Tougher laws for attacks on pregnant women.
Tougher penalties for impaired driving convictions.
Strengthen border security to keep illegal guns out of Canada.
All sex offenders will go on the sex offender registry and be made to provide DNA samples.

Consumers:

$5 million annually: for more consumer inspectors for gas pumps and heating meters.
Higher penalties for companies and cartels that engage in price fixing.
Ban text message fees on spam text messages.
Toughen laws against internet spam.
Improve "made in Canada" labelling of consumer products.
Stronger product safety legislation.
Guarantee one quarter of commissioners on the CRTC will be french speaking.
Launch an investigation into the recent listeriosis outbreak.

Native people:

Improve access to education.
Address grievances of aboriginals left out of the residential school settlement.

Immigration:

Reduce the immigration backlog.
Make it easier for skilled workers to work in their field.
Regulate immigration consultants.

Cities and Infrastructure:

Invest in new projects in rural and northern Canada.

Farmers:

Increase slaughterhouse capacity.
Continue to change the Wheat Board.
$500 million over four years: aid to farmers. ($250 million is new money)

Parliament:

Reform or abolish the Senate.
Redistribute and add seats as necessary to the House of Commons to better reflect population. No province would lose seats.
Create a Charter of Open Federalism.

Accountability:

Create a task force to identify unnecessary federal appointments.
Ensure federal appointees reflect the ethnic, age, and gender diversity of Canada.
Create a Public Appointments Commission.
Require all departments and agencies to produce quarterly financial statements.

Arts and Culture:

Not proceed with a clause in a tax bill that would cut funding for film and television projects with graphic content.
$150 million annually: for children's arts tax credit.
Will not cut funding to arts and culture.
Promote Canadian history and heritage.

Foreign relations and defence:

Increases the size of the military.
Keep troops in Afghanistan until July 2011.
$50 million annually: to restore the veterans' allowance for veterans from Commonwealth countries or Second World War allies who have lived in Canada at least 10 years.
Increase funeral/burial assistance for veterans.
Promote democracy around the world with a new agency.
Double foreign aid from 2005 levels.

Canadian electorate stays home in droves

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

By Janice Tibbetts
Canwest News Service

The election of 2008 recorded a turnout of 59.1 per cent, the lowest election turnout in history. (Mark van Manen/Vancouver Sun)

OTTAWA - Canadians stayed away from the polling stations in record numbers Tuesday, reinforcing an international trend of steady decline attributed to voter malaise, mistrust of politicians, and a feeling that the election outcome was a foregone conclusion.

Almost 10 million voters -just over 40 per cent of those eligible -stayed home instead of heading to the ballot box on a balmy October day to exercise their democratic right.

The 59.1 per cent tally was almost six per cent lower than it was in the winter of 2006, when 64.7 per cent of potential voters cast ballots in an election that ended 13 years of Liberal rule.

"I think the last election was more competitive and it captured the public's interest," speculated Jon Pammett, a Carleton University political science professor who co-authored a study on declining voter engagement.

But he also noted that relatively high turnout nearly three years ago was a blip in a two-decade trend of declining electoral engagement, particularly among young people. The desire for change sparked an increase in voters in 2006, up from a previous record low of 60.9 in 2004.

Voter turnout this week was lowest in Newfoundland, where many Tories may have stayed home rather than defy a strong "anything-but-Conservative" campaign launched by Premier Danny Williams in the latest salvo in his ongoing feud with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Alberta experienced the second-worst numbers, with the northern, transient boom town of Fort McMurray drawing fewer voters per capita than anywhere else in the country, at 36 per cent.

"There's a significant lack of competition in Alberta and there's a feeling your vote is not going to make a difference," said Harold Jansen, a University of Lethbridge political scientist.

He said it's time for Canada to consider mandatory voting, which exists in Australia.

"We've never seriously debated it in Canada and I think we're at the point where we need to discuss it," said Jansen. "I'm coming around more and more to the idea that it's something worth considering and possibly adopting."

Harper also weighed in on the failure of a growing percentage of Canadians to vote, which he said is an unexplained and disappointing "phenomenon" that needs to be studied.

"I think it's fundamental to all the rights and freedoms that we enjoy," Harper said Wednesday in Calgary.

"All parties and their members and their workers work very hard to get their messages out to the Canadian people and give the Canadian people a lot of options."

Elections Canada, concerned about a growing decline over the last two decades, commissioned a study five years ago that revealed a skeptical electorate that believed its votes wouldn't change anything and that the political parties had nothing decent to offer.

"There is a widespread perception that politicians are untrustworthy, selfish, unaccountable, lack credibility, are not true to their word, etc.," said the study, compiled by Pammett and Lawrence LeDuc, a political scientist at University of Toronto.

"People are less likely to cast a ballot if they feel they have no influence over government actions, do not feel voting is an essential civic act, or do not feel the election is competitive enough to make their votes matter to the outcome, either at the national or the local constituency level."

The authors, who interviewed 1,000 people who didn't vote, also found that young people, the poor, and new Canadians are less likely to head to the polls.

The national peak in voting was 50 years ago, when almost 80 per cent of Canadians came out to hand Conservative John Diefenbaker the biggest majority in the country's history. The numbers have dropped steadily over the years - and dramatically in the 1990s, when the Liberals dominated the political landscape.

In this week's election, turnout was highest in Prince Edward Island at 69.5 per cent. The riding of Malpeque led the country, with almost 73 per cent of voters casting ballots.

Ontario votes were the same as the national average of 59.1 per cent, while B.C. and Quebec were both above average, at 61 per cent.

The Yukon had the highest turnout among the territories, with 63.7 per cent of registered voters making the trip to the ballot box.

Voter turnout percentage:

Canada: 59.1

Prince Edward Island: 69.5

Yukon: 63.7

New Brunswick: 62.8

Quebec: 61.1

British Columbia: 61.0

Nova Scotia: 60.7

Saskatchewan: 59.4

Ontario: 59.1

Manitoba: 56.8

Alberta: 52.9

Nunavut: 49.4

Northwest Territories: 48.6

Newfoundland and Labrador: 48.1

Turnout in major cities:

Ottawa: 68.9

Victoria: 68.9

Regina: 62.9

Montreal: 61.4

Saskatoon: 61.1

Halifax: 60.8

Vancouver: 59.9

Winnipeg: 58.2

Toronto: 56.6

Calgary: 54.6

Edmonton: 54.4

Source: Elections Canada

Conservatives end three-decade P.E.I. lockout

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:40:00 GMT

Charlottetown Guardian

Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks with P.E.I. candidate Gail Shea in Summerside, P.E.I. Sept. 12. Shea won her seat, ending a thirty year Liberal reign in her riding. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

CHARLOTTETOWN - Conservative Gail Shea made a breakthrough for the party on Prince Edward Island Tuesday by ending the Liberal party's decade-long hold on the province.

Shea, a popular former provincial cabinet minister, defeated Liberal Keith Milligan, a former premier, in a close race that flipped back and forth between the two candidates in the riding of Egmont as the night went on.

Egmont has elected Liberals in every election since 1980. In the 2006 federal election, the Liberal party won the riding by nearly 4,300 votes.

In the end, Shea got 8,122 votes compared to Milligan's 8,060 votes, a difference of 62 votes - clearly within the recount range.

The NDP's Orville Lewis received 1,670 votes while the Green Party's Rebecca Ridlington received 626 votes.

In the rest of Prince Edward Island, the Liberal incumbents held onto their seats against a Conservative tide in much of the rest of the country.

Islanders returned Wayne Easter in Malpeque, Shawn Murphy in Charlottetown and Lawrence MacAulay in Cardigan.

Dion vows to stay the course in spite of heavy Liberal losses

jgreen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:28:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Liberal leader Stephane Dion leaves the stage with his wife Jannine Krieber and daughter Jeanne after speaking at his election night headquarters in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a minority Conservative government was declared Tuesday to assure him the economy is his priority and his depleted official Opposition party will co-operate to ensure Canadians are protected.

In his election-night address to supporters, Dion made no mention of the heavy Liberal losses at the polls, nor did he address the future of his fragile leadership, as one adviser said he would.

The 53-year-old MP who led a national campaign for his party for the first time pledged that "we Liberals will do our part responsibly to make sure this Parliament works" in the face of "an economic storm."

Top Liberals said it was not the time or place to start in on Dion's leadership, which will be subject to a review at a party convention in May.

"People should keep their powder dry," said Quebec Liberal Denis Coderre. Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said it was "indecent" to discuss the leadership issue, since Dion fought so hard during the campaign.

The Liberals had lost or were losing in 20 ridings when Dion spoke, compared to the 95 seats they held when Parliament was dissolved.

While Toronto MP Bob Rae and Dion's communications director, Mark Dunn, declared some victory for the Liberals in helping stave off a Conservative majority, Dion made no such claim.

He stuck to a vow of co-operation with the government and with other parties to face the economic crisis that hit during the 37-day election campaign.

"My priority, the priority of the official Opposition, will be the economy, will be the economic storm that we see around the world, will be to protect Canadians for our savings, our homes, our jobs, our pensions," Dion said. "And I asked Mr. Harper to make the same commitment at this time of global economic uncertainty. We stand ready to work with all political parties to make this Parliament work."

A Liberal source said leadership issues will emerge soon enough, though, and that election night was a time to show respect for Dion's hard fight.

The Liberal constitution provides for a leadership review at a convention in Vancouver in May. Ignatieff, Dion's chief rival for the leadership in December 2006, was fiercely opposed to addressing the subject during a CTV interview.

"I think it's indecent after a man has fought heart and soul from coast to coast to coast for the sake of a party to start calling him toast or anything like that," Ignatieff said.

"That's not a dignified way to talk about a man who's fought as hard as he has for this party and fought as hard as he has for Canada for so long. I owe him respect."

Rae, another top leadership contender last time, boasted that "we've kept Mr. Harper to a minority, which is a significant achievement."

Liberals gathered at Dion's election-night headquarters were staunchly supportive, some of them saying they believed he needed just a week or two more and he might have brought the Liberals back to power.

"I still believe in the man," said Mamdouh Stephanos, a Montreal businessman and philanthropist who was a financial supporter of Dion's campaign for the Liberal leadership. "He can be respected."

"It wasn't worth it," Stephanos said, shaking his head about the fact that Canadians were sent to the polls early. "We'll repeat all this in 16 or 18 months. Too costly for nothing."

Stephanos was among dozens of people assembled at a hotel ballroom watching results on giant TV screens as Dion watched in a suite upstairs with his wife, Janine, and daughter, Jeanne.

Dion has now waged his first election campaign as party leader, learning the art of the stump speech toward the end of the campaign and struggling to the end to sell his Green Shift policy to tax fossil fuels and distribute the revenue through income tax cuts.

Helen Ghadban, a volunteer for Dion's local campaign, said Dion, whom she described as humble and educated, needed more time. "He didn't have long enough to introduce himself to the people," she said.

Denise Tremblay, a Liberal candidate in Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, also volunteered that Dion needed more time.

"If he had a week more we should have been able to turn it around," she said. Tremblay was at Dion's headquarters instead of her own because she had no chance of winning the seat held by the Bloc Quebecois.

Tremblay said she hopes there will not be a leadership contest to dump Dion.

"We have the leader we need to have," she said. "He's a man with a great degree of integrity and intelligence."

"It will be a weak government," predicted retiree Yvon Gauthier. "For the next election it will be a real change, in a year."

Said Hamid Khan said he was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results.

"Probably the Conservatives are more disappointed than the Liberals. They wanted a majority."

ANALYSIS: Is a united left now a possibility?

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:25:00 GMT

Ashley Terry
Canwest News Service

Some observers are whispering about the possibility of uniting the parties of the left to compete with the now-united right. (Tom Hanson/Reuters)

Stephane Dion toured a Thanksgiving open-air market in Orillia, Ont. on Saturday, telling shoppers to vote Liberal. He also said his party was doing everything it could to make sure Green party leader Elizabeth May won her Nova Scotia riding.

A little confusing, perhaps, but with so many parties on one side, the left vote is split. Dion’s support for May has sent the message that Canadians should vote strategically to prevent a Conservative majority.

Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario and former NDP candidate, says voters are “torn between the NDP, the Liberals and, to some extent, the Greens. Clearly around 65 per cent of the public are saying these are the issues that matter to me.”

Some observers are whispering about the possibility of uniting the parties of the left to compete with the now-united right. “I think it is realistic, I think something will happen eventually. There isn’t room on the left for three viable parties,” says Tom Flanagan, a Conservative Party strategist and key architect of the Conservative merger.

But he also cautions that a merger is a slow and difficult process. Discussion of uniting the Canadian right began back in 1996. But the parties didn’t make serious moves to unite until the last straw: a 2003 third-place finish by the Canadian Alliance in the Perth-Middlesex by-election. It was a huge disappointment for the party that had poured extensive resources into the campaign.

Flanagan says the party realized at this point that they would never be an effective opposition to the Liberals unless the right-leaning parties came together. “You don’t transcend the differences until you’ve tried everything else and failed,” he says.

But has the left come to this point? The answer seems to be a resounding no. Not yet, at least. Although the left side of the political spectrum is crowded, there is a list of factors keeping the parties apart.

One is history. The parties of the right emerged from the same political ancestry – John A. Macdonald’s 19th-century Conservative Party. Regional divisions led to the emergence of protest parties such as the Progressive Conservatives and, later, the Reform Party.

But the NDP emerged from the CCF in Alberta completely separate from the Liberals. Then there are the Greens and the Bloc, with their own separate histories. And just as they were all founded separately, they still disagree on many issues.

“The dynamic is different,” says Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. “They all want to defeat Harper, but they have different agendas.”

The differences have been articulated during the campaigns. On the environment, the Liberals support a carbon tax and the NDP support a cap-and-trade system. The Green party wants both of these and the Bloc wants a cap-and-trade system in a provincial framework. On Afghanistan, the Liberals support legislation extending the mission to 2011, and the NDP, Greens and Bloc are outspoken against it. The list goes on.

Another key difference is that the Alliance party had little support, and no real chance of forming a government. But the NDP and the Liberals consider themselves strong and able to make gains in the future.

“The Liberals think they’re going to form the government again,” says Wiseman. With this expectation, the party is unlikely to make any major concessions involved in merging.

Flanagan concurs. “If the Liberals do better than initially expected in this election, I think they will feel they have the wind at their back. They will feel they can afford to wait.”

In the short term, there is much greater chance of seeing a coalition than a merger. The prospect was raised early in the campaign by Jack Layton and acknowledged recently by Stephen Harper. It could be a real possibility next time Canadians head to the polls.

The agreement between Dion and May not to run candidates in each other’s ridings is a start. In Flanagan’s opinion, they are further along than any of the other parties. “If anything was going to happen, I would think the first domino to fall would be the Liberal-Green cooperation.”

A coalition could take many forms. One would be for the Liberals to leave a number of cabinet seats to be filled by the other parties and they would come to an agreement on four or five of the key issues like health care and the environment.

Ryan is in favour of this form of coalition, and says many others are as well. “Everywhere I go people on the left are saying this,” he says. “I’d rather see that approach than see Harper dominate the government.”

Ironically, it is another major roadblock to unification in the short term since it could enable the Liberals to form a government without merging. However, in the long term it would encourage the parties to unite.

“If you work together for two or three years as a coalition, the question that arises is ‘how will we position ourselves the next time around?’” says Ryan. “It’s difficult to start taking swings at the party you’ve just had a coalition with.”

Electoral maps get new colours across Canada

aterry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:02:00 GMT

By Janice Tibbetts
Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - Ontario voters rejigged their electoral map Tuesday, with more seats going Tory blue than they have since the Mulroney years as the province helped propel the Conservatives to a comfortable minority.

The Liberals lost key ground in Canada's most populated province in both votes and seat count as the Conservatives, benefitting from Liberal vote splitting with the NDP, stole about one dozen seats that went red in 2006.

Ontario marked the biggest regional change in Canada, along with British Columbia, which appeared late Tuesday night to be headed for Conservative domination at the expense of the floundering Liberals, poised to lose several of the seats they won the last time around.

Other regions, however, resisted significant change. Quebecers once again granted the Bloc Quebecois the majority of the province's 75 seats and the Prairies remained largely Tory blue. Atlantic Canadians kept the Liberals as the dominant force in the region.

On the East Coast, the Conservatives lost all three of their seats in Newfoundland, brought down by Premier Danny Williams's ferocious anything-but-Conservative campaign over Prime Minister Stephen Harper breaking a 2006 election promise involving offshore oil revenues.

What the Harper Conservatives lost in Newfoundland, they gained in New Brunswick, stealing three ridings from the Liberals in the province, including the seat held by former solicitor-general Andy Scott.

In the end, however, voters in Atlantic Canada sent only two fewer Liberals to Ottawa, with a contingent of 18. The New Democrats picked up two more of the 32 seats in the region, for a total of five, and the Conservatives, while they slipped about six per cent in the popular vote, secured one more seat than they did in the last election.

The Conservatives, however, slipped six per cent in the popular vote in Atlantic Canada since 2006, perhaps unable to overcome a suspicion of Harper from his Canadian Alliance days, when he referred to the East Coast as the home of a "defeatist culture."

Quebecers, who appeared ready to turn away from the Bloc Quebecois in large numbers in the early days of the election, granted Gilles Duceppe and his separatists the majority of the province's 75 seats and refused to give Harper and his Conservatives the extra votes they had been seeking to win a majority.

Duceppe made electoral gains by capitalizing on a sentiment that Conservative cuts to arts and culture were an affront to francophone culture. The Bloc leader also bundled the program cancellations with Harper's crackdown on youth crime - a perennial hard sell in the province - to portray the prime minister as being out of step with Quebec values.

The Conservatives, despite significant gains in Ontario, also failed to make a breakthrough in Harper's birth city of Toronto, which remained a Liberal fortress with some New Democrat pockets. Prominent Liberals in the city, including former leadership contenders Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, were all re-elected.

Despite slumping sovereignty Bloc remains a force in Quebec

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:55:00 GMT

By Marianne White
Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe arrives to speak to supporters at his election night headquarters in Montreal. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

QUEBEC - Quebecers were back to square one after Tuesday's election with almost the exact same representation in Ottawa, but analysts say the new Conservative minority government is going to face uncertainty in the province.

Antonia Maioni, who heads the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, believes Harper comes out of the election weaker in Quebec even if his party managed to prevent the debacle pollsters predicted.

"Harper has lost a lot of credibility on Quebec in the eyes of his party and in the eyes of Canadians and it's going to be very hard in that situation, with the Bloc bringing back so many members to Ottawa, for the government to function very effectively," Maioni said.

Almost written-off in the early days of the campaign, the Bloc Quebecois won a solid majority of seats in the province Tuesday night, followed by surprising gains by the Liberals and the Conservatives holding on to their seats.

Early Wednesday, the Bloc was leading or elected in 48 of the province's 75 ridings. The Liberals were second with 15 ridings, the Conservatives lost one seat and finished with 10 ridings while the NDP was holding on to its one seat and there was one independent. Heading into the election, the Bloc held 48 seats in the House of Commons, the Conservatives and the Liberals each held 11, there was one New Democrat, two independent MPs and two seats were vacant.

Observers and political opponents thought the Bloc would have a hard time holding on to its seats in Quebec with support for sovereignty at one of its lowest levels in years, but Guay said the party managed to convince voters of its relevance.

"Considering how the campaign started, the Bloc was able to weather the storm," said Sherbrooke University political scientist Jean-Herman Guay.

Analysts think the election's result might complicate dealings with Quebec.

But Alain G. Gagnon, the Canada research chair in Quebec and Canadian studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal, thinks the Conservatives might be able to push forward their decentralization agenda with the support of a strong autonomist Bloc.

"A type of tacit alliance between the Conservative forces from the West and the more leftist forces in Quebec, who both share interests in decentralization policies but for totally different reasons, might be able to help the Conservatives govern," Gagnon said.

The Tories' hopes for gains in Quebec went awry thanks to their controversial cuts in arts funding and a plan to create stiffer sentences for youth found guilty of violent crime. Those issues appear to have led many Quebecers to believe Stephen Harper's party was out of touch with their values.

The Tories, who entered the campaign with 11 seats had hoped to double that total.

"The Tories managed to do well and saved face," Guay said.

The Liberals made gains in leader Stephane Dion's home province. The gains came in the Montreal area, a Liberals stronghold. Star candidates Marc Garneau, former astronaut and Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister's son, were elected.

For a leader who was seen as headed straight for the slaughterhouse at the beginning of the campaign, Dion has managed to stop the bleeding, said Guay.

The NDP, who had hoped for a Quebec breakthrough, appeared to re-elect Thomas Mulcair, a former provincial cabinet minister elected in a by-election last year.

Harper returns as prime minister with stronger minority government

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:54:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Stephen Harper pledged to work with the opposition parties on Tuesday. (Andy Clark/Reuters)

CALGARY - Stephen Harper, denied the majority he has been seeking, accepted his party's new mandate to govern "with humility" and pledged to work with the opposition parties to "weather the storm" facing the Canadian economy.

"As the result of our campaign, our party is bigger, our support base is broader and more Canadians are finding a home in the Conservative Party of Canada," the prime minister in his acceptance speech.

Nevertheless, the victory was tempered by the fact that the Conservatives will once again form a minority government.

"As Conservatives, we have governed rarely and we accept this result and this responsibility with humility and without hesitation," told about 1,000 supporters, many of them waving "Harper" placards or clapping thunder sticks, gathered at the Telus Convention Centre in downtown Calgary.

"Our new caucus is broad and representative of Canada . . . At the same time, its scope is not as wide as it should be. So regardless of how you voted, know that we will form an inclusive and responsive government that protects the interests of all Canadians in all communities of this country."

Harper hailed the various opposition leaders, congratulating Liberal Leader Stephane Dion for his "12 years in passionate defence of the causes that are dear to your heart."

The prime minister then called on the opposition parties to work with his government to protect the savings and earnings of Canadians amid the global financial crisis.

"This is a time for us all to put aside political difference and partisan considerations and to work co-operatively for the benefit of Canada," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Stephen Harper was hunkered down with his staff at the Hyatt Regency Hotel as party workers set up the party's election-night event.

Conservative supporters were relatively restrained in their enthusiasm throughout the evening.

There was a smattering of applause by supporters filtering into the convention centre as Global TV predicted a Conservative minority.

Some were clearly disappointed to see the Conservatives falling short of a majority that seemed within reach in the early weeks of the campaign.

"I think we'll have wasted our money if we don't get a majority," Conservative supporter Jan Sproule said as she watched the results.

However, party heavyweight Preston Manning said the victory was a step in the right direction.

"They managed to get a minority last time and they've got a stronger minority this time. The graph is going up," said the former Reform Party leader. "We'd all like to see it get to a majority faster, but I don't think you can complain about the trend."

Conservative Industry Minister Jim Prentice said parliamentarians will be under pressure to put aside their differences to address the global financial crisis.

"I think it's very clear that Canadians get it right every time when it comes to an election. It's the obligation of everybody who's elected going into the House of Commons to make Parliament work at this point," he said.

Early results suggested the Conservatives only achieved a slight gain in overall popular support nationwide. In terms of seats, they made significant gains in Ontario and British Columbia - two of the three key provincial battlegrounds. But they lost a seat in Quebec, where the party was hoping to gain ground.

"I think there was a very, very nasty campaign by the Bloc against the prime minister over the so-called culture cuts that never ever happened - we actually increased the budget. But when an emotional thing gets going like that it's hard to recover," said Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton.

Harper hoped to run a cautious campaign with few policy surprises, but the party was side-swiped by a steep decline in support in Quebec and the eruption of the global financial crisis.

Harper started his day by watching his son Ben, 12, take part in a practice with the Calgary Flames.

Later, the prime minister cast his vote at a junior high school in his riding of Calgary Southwest.

Harper's first priorities will be economy, foreign policy

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:31:00 GMT

By David Akin
Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to move quickly to appoint a cabinet. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to move quickly to appoint a cabinet and bring MPs back to the House of Commons where they'll get a chance to debate the economic crisis and other national issues.

"He believes that the place to do the nation's business is in the House of Commons," said a former aide and adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Harper's first priorities will be the economy and foreign affairs, two issues linked together because the of the global economic and financial crisis.

The prime minister will quickly return to Ottawa from Calgary to prepare for the biennial summit of leaders of La Francophonie - the organization of 53 countries where French is used in everyday life. Harper is the host for this event, which begins in Quebec City on Friday, and he is expected to need several briefing sessions from advisers to prepare.

Fellow G8 leader and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be in Quebec City for that event and will also have some bilateral meetings with Harper. When those meetings were originally arranged, it was to talk about improving trade ties between the two countries. The two leaders, however, at both La Francophonie and in their own meetings, are expected to address current economic conditions.

Sometime after that, Harper, Sarkozy and the other leaders of the G8 industrialized countries are expected to meet to discuss the global economic crisis. A date for that meeting has not yet been announced.

Finally, Harper must also prepare for the annual leaders summit for APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. That organization, whose members include most of the countries that border on the Pacific Ocean, holds its leaders' summit in Peru beginning the week of Nov. 15.

Again, the current economic crisis is sure to dominate APEC, which includes G8 members Canada, the United States, Japan, and Russia.

In and around that busy international schedule, Harper, his chief of staff Guy Giorno and other advisers will settle on an initial legislative agenda.

But the first order of business will be to name a new cabinet.

Harper is expected to move quickly on that front, asking Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to swear in a new cabinet - possibly as early as Oct. 22.

Senior advisers to Harper and Giorno say Jim Flaherty is almost certain to keep his job as finance minister and Peter MacKay is a good bet to stay in the Defence portfolio.

Harper's big challenge will be to fill the hole left by David Emerson, the British Columbia MP who did not run in the election, but holds the job of Foreign Affairs Minister until his successor is named. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, Harper's Quebec lieutenant, is seen as a possible replacement at foreign affairs.

New cabinet ministers will have to be quick studies on their portfolios because Harper is expected to open the 40th Parliament with a throne speech that could happen on Nov. 3 or 4. Advisers say Harper's legislative priorities will come straight from his platform.

And he will need the support of at least one party to win a confidence vote on the throne speech.

If the prime minister needs political cover to get through the fall, advisers say he will most likely look first to Jack Layton and the NDP.

That's because on some justice and on some consumer-protection issues, there are similarities between the Conservative and NDP positions.

While a minority government will mean some political restrictions on what Harper can do in his first year, the biggest restraint may be the treasury. With a slowing economy, Harper simply may not have much money to bring in even some of the modest promises he rolled out in the last campaign.

After the throne speech, Parliament would sit straight through to Dec. 12, with a break week for Remembrance Day on Nov. 11.

The procedural rules of the House of Commons, which can only be altered by a unanimous vote of all parties, requires the House to rise for its Christmas break two Fridays before the holiday.

Newfoundland premier gets his election wish

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:21:00 GMT

St. John's Telegram

Newfoundland and Labrador voted ABC on Oct. 14 as Premier Danny Williams wanted. (Tim Fraser/Canwest News Service)

ST. JOHN'S, NL. - Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams got the "goose egg" he wanted - zero seats for the Conservatives in his province - on Tuesday night.

The federal Conservatives, who went into the election with three of the seven seats in Newfoundland, failed to win any, including Avalon, where Tory incumbent Fabian Manning lost a close race to his Liberal challenger, Scott Andrews.

The Liberals were the big benefactor of Williams' "Anything But Conservative" campaign - prompted by a long-standing feud with Prime Minister Stephen Harper over Williams' claim Harper broke promises to let Newfoundland keep offshore revenues.

The Grits took six of the province's seven seats, up from the four they held at dissolution.

But the NDP also made a comeback. Former provincial NDP leader Jack Harris won easily in St. John's East, returning the seat to the NDP for the first time in two decades.

The NDP also came close in neighbouring St. John's South-Mount Pearl, where Liberal Siobhan Coady squeaked out a win over NDP candidate Ryan Cleary.

Elsewhere, incumbent Liberal Scott Simms easily kept his Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor seat, as did Liberal Gerry Byrne, the incumbent in Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte.

Labrador incumbent, Liberal Todd Russell, maintained his seat and Liberal candidate Judy Foote took Random-Burin-St. George's.

Dion needed just a little more time to win, Liberals say

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:15:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Liberals are expected to move swiftly to dump leader Stephane Dion after singificant losses on Tuesday. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberals gathered at party leader Stephane Dion's election-night headquarters were staunchly supportive, some of them saying they believed he needed just a week or two more and he might have brought the Liberals back to power.

"I still believe in the man," said Mamdouh Stephanos, a Montreal businessman and philanthropist who was a financial supporter of Dion's campaign for the Liberal leadership. "He can be respected."

While Dion won his own riding of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, he lost a number of seats nationally to a strengthened Conservative majority under leader Stephen Harper.

"It wasn't worth it," Stephanos said, shaking his head about the fact that Canadians were sent to the polls early. "We'll repeat all this in 16 or 18 months. Too costly for nothing."

Stephanos was among dozens of people assembled at a hotel ballroom watching results on giant TV screens as Dion watched in a suite upstairs with his wife, Janine, and daughter, Jeanne.

Dion, 53, waged his first election campaign as party leader this autumn, learning the art of stump speeches toward the end of the campaign and struggling to the end to sell his Green Shift policy to tax fossil fuels and distribute the revenue through income tax cuts.

"Next time he has to call it a carbon trade, not a carbon tax," Stephanos said.

Helen Ghadban, a volunteer for Dion's local campaign said Dion, whom she described as humble and educated, needed more time. "He didn't have long enough to introduce himself to the people," she said.

Denise Tremblay, a Liberal candidate in Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, also volunteered that Dion needed more time.

Tremblay said she hopes there will not be a leadership contest to dump Dion.

"We have the leader we need to have," she said. "He's a man with a great degree of integrity and intelligence."

"It will be a weak government," predicted retiree Yvon Gauthier. "For the next election it will be a real change, in a year."

Said Hamid Khan said he was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results.

"Probably the Conservatives are more disappointed than the Liberals. They wanted a majority."

TV news anchors at their cool, professional best on election night

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:44:00 GMT

By Alex Strachan
Canwest News Service

CBC went the conservative route - Peter Mansbridge in a dark suit and silk tie, surrounded by a pod of pundits, pollsters and policy wonks at the Barbara Frum Atrium at CBC's Toronto Broadcast Centre. Just in case you didn't get the point, the atrium's upper decks appeared to be festooned with maple leaf flags.

Global TV went the futuristic route, with a spacious, space-age set replete with flat-screen plasma monitors and a polished, gunmetal sheen - a look straight out of the CTU nerve centre in the real-time TV thriller 24.

And CTV went with a classic, blue-screen look, with cool blue lighting, backlit 3D maple leafs and trusty anchor Lloyd Robertson in a dark suit, red tie, professorial spectacles and the familiar dulcet tones of an old pro.

Their styles may have been different, depending on which channel you watched, but the end story was the same: another Conservative minority.

Those viewers watching in the West could be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu as Global National anchor Kevin Newman appeared shortly after polls closed in B.C. and told viewers that Global's election desk was once again projecting a Tory win - but not the decisive win Stephen Harper hoped for when he called the election little more than five weeks ago.

From there, it was simply a matter of going over the results riding-by-riding.

Mansbridge, Newman and Robertson are at their most professional on election night, and they appeared collectively at ease and in their element. Anyone hoping for gaffes, or Dan Rather-style homilies and homespun wisdom, was bound to be disappointed.

Of the three, Robertson appeared to be the most alert and in-control - so much for suggestions of retirement - but the truth is there was not much to choose between anchors.

Thankfully, there was the occasional light moment.

"I've waited my entire career to say this," The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos quipped early in the evening: "Back to you, Peter."

The election made it onto the international TV radar, as well. BBC World noted that it was Canadians' third trip to the polls in four years.

More importantly, BBC noted, it was the first major election since the global financial crisis, so more eyes than usual were watching around the globe to see if the credit crunch would affect the result.

Layton urges parties to set aside differences, work together

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:28:00 GMT

By Mike De Souza
Canwest News Service

NDP leader Jack Layton has been re-re-elected to his Toronto seat. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)

TORONTO - NDP Leader Jack Layton urged Canada's major parties Tuesday to set aside their differences and work together in the newly-elected Parliament for the good of all Canadians.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of several hundred supporters, Layton pledged to keep fighting to defend the interests of average Canadians instead of the corporate boardrooms. But he also highlighted that this would be done in the context of a minority government.

"No party has a mandate to implement an agenda without agreement from the other parties," Layton said to cheers. "I believe the people of Canada have called on all the parties to put aside the acrimony that arises in campaigns and to come together in the public interest."

He also said he was proud of his party's efforts throughout the campaign in which the NDP spent a record $20 million from coast to coast.

"Now we didn't quite get the gold medal this election, but we did give it our best shot and it was a very good shot indeed," Layton said. "So we're going to fight to protect the savings and the pensions, the homes and the jobs of ordinary working Canadians, each and every day of the next Parliament."

Earlier in the evening, the supporters cheered loudly after learning that Layton was re-elected as the early results came in.

But the cheers were few and far between in the first two hours after the polls had closed with the NDP falling short of a major breakthrough that many supporters had expected. The initial results indicated modest gains for the party despite heightened expectations from Layton who maintained throughout the campaign that he was running to be the prime minister.

Before delivering his speech, Layton watched the results in a private room, joined by his wife, Olivia Chow, who was re-elected in the Toronto riding of Trinity Spadina, his children, Sarah and Mike, as well as his mother-in-law and senior adviser George Nakitsas.

Chow was the first to address the crowd, thanking her riding supporters for her victory and pledging to keep a close eye on the re-elected Conservative government.

"Together we stood up for a vision that defends Canada," Chow said. "You have my guarantee that we will never back down and you and I know it takes all of us to make a fair and just vision of Canada a reality. Tonight is part of that journey - a journey to take back our country and put it on a path where everyone can prosper - where nobody is left behind."

The evening wrapped up a marathon tour for Layton that included 84 events in 100 different ridings. His plane took 55 flights throughout the campaign, covering nearly 69,000 kilometres. Layton ran his campaign with a consistent message that he was running to be the prime minister, delighting New Democrats at every stop on his tour.

Although he consistently earned top marks in surveys about leadership, Canadians were still not ready to give his party more power in Ottawa.

Under the party constitution, Layton is required to face a leadership test at the next NDP convention. But after five years at the helm of the New Democrats, Layton has never faced any serious challenges to his leadership, and most party supporters maintain he's the best person for the job.

Tories give tepid response to early results

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:19:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning watches election results come in at the election night headquarters of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Calgary. (Andy Clark/Reuters)

CALGARY - Stephen Harper was hunkered down with his staff at a hotel in downtown Calgary on Tuesday night as he waited to see if his decision to call an election this fall will expand his party's grip on power - or turn out to be a disastrous gamble.

As party workers set up the Telus Convention Centre for the party's election-night event, most supporters were expecting the party to return to power, albeit without the majority that seemed within their reach in the early weeks of the campaign.

"It doesn't really feel like anyone's really excited," confided one party employee.

There was a smattering of applause by some of the supporters filtering into the convention centre as Global TV predicted a Conservative minority.

Harper hoped to run a cautious campaign with few policy surprises, and that is basically what he achieved. But the party was side-swiped by a steep decline in support in Quebec and the eruption of the global financial crisis.

Junior cabinet minister Jason Kenney said the party was pleased with the campaign it ran, all things considered, "notwithstanding the fact we had a market explosion in the middle of the campaign."

He rejected the notion that the party would be disappointed if it doesn't form a majority in the Commons.

"The prime minister and, I think everyone in the party, has been saying from the start that we expect a minority. And that wasn't just playing some expectations game," said Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.

"In a five-party competitive environment, particularly in our current economic situation, it's difficult to impossible to get to a majority. I think the important think is we'll probably be expanding our coalition and strengthening our mandate tonight."

Harper started his day by watching his son Ben, 12, take part in a practice with the Calgary Flames. As Ben donned a Flames jersey and hit the ice, Harper grinned broadly from the players' bench.

The Flames posed for a photo with the prime minister, and captain Jarome Iginla signed one of his number-12 jerseys for Ben.

Later, the prime minister cast his vote at a junior high school in his riding of Calgary Southwest. Harper was accompanied by his wife Laureen, as well as Ben and Ben's sister, Rachel, 9.

"I'm feeling good and had a good night's sleep," he said as he shook hands and posed for pictures with constituents.

After voting, the prime minister declined to offer any thoughts on the campaign.

"I'm not going to go on any more about the choice. I think I've made my point," Harper said.

"Now we accept the democratic result of the voters. But it's important that everybody vote. It's the foundation of all of our rights and freedoms."

As they awaited the results, Conservatives were optimistic the party would gain considerable ground in Ontario. But they were resigned to the fact the best they could hope for in Quebec was to retain the party's 11 seats.

"I'm hopeful that we'll be actually hold what we have and cement ourselves as the second choice of francophones in Quebec," said Kenney.

Around 7:30 Calgary time, party supports began filtering into the convention centre to watch the election results play out on three big screens.

Harper is expected to make his way over from the adjoining Hyatt Regency Hotel once the results are clear.

Bloc ends up where it started, with 48 seats

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:15:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe stands on stage after speaking to supporters at his election night headquarters in Montreal. Quebecers are opting overwhelmingly for Bloc Quebecois MPs who will be sitting on opposition benches when Parliament resumes sitting. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe claimed credit Tuesday night for preventing Prime Minister Stephen Harper from governing as he wishes, saying if had not been for Quebec, the Conservatives would have had a majority government.

"We have attained out objective," Duceppe said to resounding cheers from supporters gathered at a Montreal nightclub. "Without the Bloc Quebecois Stephen Harper would have formed a majority government."

While the Bloc fell well short of the result that public opinion polls had led them to expect, Duceppe pointed out that the Bloc garnered the majority of seats in Quebec for the sixth time in a row and proved it is still very pertinent.

"That is five times more ridings than Mr. Harper's party and two thirds of the ridings in Quebec," a somewhat subdued Duceppe told the crowd. "That's strong." By early Wednesday, the Bloc was elected or leading in 48 of Quebec's 75 ridings. The Liberals had picked up 15, the Tories 10, the NDP 1 and there was one independent elected.

Duceppe said this election provided the first real opportunity for debate after the government recognized the Quebecois as a nation and last night's results also prove that Quebecers will not be content with simply symbolic recognition.

"Quebecers demand respect of their culture. They have clearly rejected the policy of contempt towards artists and government cuts in the area of culture."

Duceppe said the vote also means that Quebecers want the government to recognize and act on the primacy of the French language in Quebec, to support the Kyoto accord and not to take repressive measures against young offenders.

Duceppe pledged the Bloc would behave in a responsible and constructive way and he called on Harper to govern with a sense of openness and compromise.

"We are going to work hard for Quebec and we are ready to discuss with all parties to improve the life of people and to support and sustain the economy and the environment."

"We will not act in a blindly partisan way and I invite Mr. Harper, Dion and Layton to do the same for the greater benefit of our fellow citizens."

Tuesday's vote marked the end of a campaign that started with the Bloc on the defensive and with the Conservatives expected to pick up several more ridings in Quebec at the expense of the sovereigntist party. A strong campaign by the Bloc on its home turf, a popular video, posted to You Tube, protesting cuts to arts funding and missteps by Harper appeared to turn the tide. By the end of the campaign, the Bloc was on the offensive.

However, as the votes began to roll in, it was clear that the Bloc was falling well short of the what they had hoped to achieve. One Bloc insider had privately predicted the party would garner between 46 and 56 seats - depending on whether they could get out their vote. At press time, they were elected or leading in 48.

Quebec City MP Christian Gagnon was candid, saying the results were disappointing and the party would have to spend some time analyzing the result.

May loses bid to win N.S. seat, supporters blame NDP

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:11:00 GMT

By Richard Foot
Canwest News Service

Green Party leader Elizabeth May receives a hug from her daughter, Victoria Cate May Burton, at a post-election rally in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. May didn't win a seat in her riding. (Paul Darrow/Reuters)

NEW GLASGOW, N. S. - Elizabeth May's dream of knocking off a Conservative titan was dashed Tuesday night as Defence Minister Peter MacKay held off the Green party leader's high-profile challenge and held onto his Central Nova seat.

"It's obviously a disappointment," May told reporters in MacKay's campaign headquarters, where she stopped to congratulate her opponent.

By 11 p.m. Eastern time the Greens had not elected any MPs across the country.

May also told reporters that she wants to stay on as leader if the party will have her, and that she will seek a seat in Parliament in the earliest possible byelection.

At Green party headquarters here, she told about 200 cheering campaign workers not to lose heart at the result.

"We ran an exuberant, a positive and a joyful campaign," she said. "We grabbed national attention, not because we were tilting at windmills but because we set out to do something right and we did it for the right reasons.

"We'll be back in force in Central Nova soon. I'm not going anywhere.

"We will be in the House of Commons because it only makes sense in this election and in the future," she added.

MacKay captured 46.6 per cent of the vote, May came second with 32.2 per cent and NDP candidate Louise Lorefice came third with 19.6 per cent.

The Liberals did not run a candidate in Central Nova after Liberal leader Stephane Dion struck a controversial deal with May not to contest the seat. What cost May, however, was not vote splitting with the Liberals but with the NDP, which placed second in the riding in 2006.

"Peter came up the middle," May admitted last night.

One of her campaign workers had an angrier explanation:

"The NDP allowed the Conservatives to win here," said a disappointed Bernadette MacDonald, a former local NDP supporter who campaigned for May this fall. "NDP voters here should have voted strategically here. They didn't. They failed us."

Toppling MacKay was always a long shot for May. Conservative roots in Central Nova run deep: MacKay has represented the riding since 1997, and his father, Elmer, was the longtime Tory MP starting in the early 1970s.

When MacKay arrived at his campaign headquarters in New Glasgow, he was greeted with cheers, hugs and applause, and high-fived many of those in the room.

"It's overwhelming and its humbling and exhilarating," he told reporters. "All of those emotions come back each and every time.

"It's very rewarding to have worked this hard . . . to see our party, our leader and our policies endorsed by the people of Central Nova.

"We ran a very high road, on-the-issues campaign here. People worked very hard."

There will likely be questions about why May, who grew up in Nova Scotia, chose to run against such a powerful and entrenched candidate as MacKay.

But those thoughts were not being expressed Tuesday night.

"Elizabeth May is the most intelligent, honest and informed candidate in Central Nova," said MacDonald. "I'm so honoured she chose to run in our community."

May will now have to return to Ottawa, not as an MP but as a political activist once more, clamouring for attention on the sidelines of the main show in the House of Commons.

However, she will likely be able to take solace in the fact that the Green vote rose to roughly 7 per cent from the 4.5 per cent of support the party received in the 2006 election.

Because of the federal subsidy that flows to national parties according the number of votes they receive, the Green party can expect a bigger budget with which to build and prepare for the next election.

"I will continue to lead the party," May said, adding she had no regrets about running in Central Nova. "I love living in Nova Scotia. I've never regretted going with my heart."

Conservative minority ready to flex its muscles

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:56:00 GMT

By Norma Greenaway
Canwest News Service

Supporters cheer while they wait for Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to speak at his election night headquarters in Calgary. Harper won a strengthened second minority government mandate on Oct.14. (Todd Korol/Reuters)

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper's Conservatives returned to power with a stronger, broadly based minority, facing a weakened opposition leader and ready to pursue an agenda that is likely to be aimed first and foremost at addressing the fallout in Canada from the economic storm sweeping the globe.

The results of Tuesday's election deprived Harper of the majority he so desperately wanted when he killed his own minority government on Sept. 7 and showed Canadian voters wanted to keep the Conservatives on a leash during what the Tory leader acknowledged would be uncertain economic times ahead.

The Conservatives hope their tally and their wins in all regions of the country will give them enough power in the Commons to press ahead with their economic agenda, which, among other things, includes $50 billion in corporate tax cuts and possibly big buck solutions to easing the credit crunch.

The party also promised in the campaign to enact a tougher crime package aimed at young offenders in particular.

""Tonight Canadians voted to move our country forward, and they have done so with confidence," Harper told supporters at his Calgary headquarters.

"As the result of our campaign, our party is bigger, our support base is broader and more Canadians are finding a home in the Conservative Party of Canada."

A subdued, weary and conciliatory-sounding Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said the global economic crisis was clearly the No. 1 issue on the minds of voters and he promised to work with the government to carve out the best possible policies to cope with the rising economic storm.

"The Canadian people have spoken today and chosen another Conservative government," said Dion, who was silent on his own future. "We will work with the government to ensure that Canadians are protected from the economic storm. My top priority will be the economy and I assured him of my co-operation on this issue."

The Liberals took a major hit. The party, which held 95 seats when Parliament was dissolved, was elected and leading in only 75 ridings, a result that seems destined to speed Dion's departure from the federal political landscape.

The Conservative party, which needed 155 seats to wield majority rule, was leading or elected in 146 ridings by early today, the Bloc in 48 and the NDP in 37, possibly a seven-seat gain over the 30 seats it held at dissolution. Two seats went to Independents, former Tory Bill Casey in Nova Scotia, and Andre Arthur in Quebec.

Conservative Industry Minister Jim Prentice embraced the results as enough of a win to move to move forward.

"It's exciting, we have another Conservative government, a clear mandate and that's exactly what we had sought - a back-to-back Conservative government," he said.

"It's now our obligation, I think all of us as parliamentarians from all parties, to make Parliament work and to get on with protecting Canadians in the face of the economic uncertainty we see."

The numbers gave Harper as many as 15 more seats - he had 127 in the last Parliament - but it seems inevitable there will still be questions about his political smarts in forcing the election. There was clearly disappointment in Harper's home riding of Calgary Southwest.

"I think we'll have wasted our money if we don't get a majority," Conservative supporter Jan Sproule said as she watched the results in Harper's headquarters.

One of Harper's big name backers begged to differ.

"They managed to get a minority last time and they've got a stronger minority this time. The graph is going up," said former Reform party leader Preston Manning. "We'd all like to see it get to a majority faster, but I don't think you can complain about the trend."

Other Liberals also weighed in when a minority Conservative government appeared inevitable.

"It's a minority Parliament and the House has to grant Mr. Harper the authority to carry on," said Bob Rae, a potential successor to Dion who won re-election in Toronto.

At the same time, Rae called the result a defeat for the Conservatives. "Mr. Harper started this campaign looking for a majority and he didn't get it."

Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff, who is also seen as having leadership ambitions, refused to weigh in on Dion's future, saying it was the wrong time for such a discussion.

One of the first stars to fall was Green Leader Elizabeth May, who lost her David and Goliath match against Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay in Central Nova in Nova Scotia.

MacKay was clearly happy with his win.

"It's overwhelming and it's humbling and exhilarating," he told reporters in New Glasgow. "All of those emotions come back each and every time."

May, who stopped by MacKay's headquarters, didn't mince words.

"It's obviously a disappointment," she told reporters before heading off to console her own supporters with an upbeat speech. "We ran an exuberant and joyful campaign. If kids five years and up could have voted, I would have won by a landslide," declared May, who lost by several thousand votes.

All the other leaders, Harper, Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe, won their seats in a walk.

"We're going into the next Parliament ready to work with other parties for the good of all Canadians," Layton said as the results became clear.

In the pivotal province of Ontario, the Conservatives were elected or leading in 51, the Liberals in 39 and the NDP in 16. It was a crushing figure for the Liberals, who had taken 54 seats in the last election.

Conservative Maxime Bernier, who lost his job as foreign affairs minister after leaving classified documents at his girlfriend's house, was easily re-elected in the Quebec riding of Beauce.

In British Columbia, Conservatives were leading or elected in 23 seats. the NDP in 10 and the Liberals in three.

The Conservatives were shut out of Newfoundland and Labrador, losing all three seats they held in the last Parliament after Premier Danny Williams ran a loud Anybody But Conservatives campaign. The Liberals won two new seats, bringing their total in the seven-seat province to six. The NDP won one.

In Nova Scotia, Bill Casey, who was ousted from the Conservative caucus after accusing Harper of breaking his promise to honour the Atlantic Accord, waltzed to easy re-election his sprawling southwestern riding as an Independent.

In Prince Edward Island, the party appeared poised to retain three of their four seats. The Tories were threatening in the seat of Egmont. The Conservatives also were expected to add to their three seats in New Brunswick.

Atlantic Canada is more Liberal friendly than some parts of Canada, and the results showed them leading and elected in 17 of the region's 32 seats. The Conservatives were elected or leading in 10 and the NDP in four, and Independent Casey.

In Quebec, the Liberals were leading or elected in 14 ridings, the Conservatives in 10 and the NDP in one.

Duceppe cheered the results.

"We met our objective tonight. Without the Bloc Quebecois, Stephen Harper would have formed a majority government," he told supporters. "We won five times a many seats (in Quebec) as Stephen Harper's party."

The final two weeks of the 37-day campaign were fought against a strong undertow of fear and anxiety sparked by the Wall Street stock market crash and an ensuing worldwide credit crunch. The turmoil pushed the economy front and centre in a campaign that until then had lacked focus. In the end, the ballot box question seemed to boil down to which leader was best equipped to steer the country through uncertain economic times.

A string of polls in the final days of the campaign suggested that after days of falling popularity, Harper and the Conservatives had stopped the bleeding and were on their way to another minority government, the country's third in a little more than four years.

Suspense revolved mostly over how many seats Harper's Conservatives would win in the 308-seat House of Commons. The party held 127 when the 39th Parliament was dissolved, compared with 95 for the Liberals, 48 for the Bloc Quebecois and 30 for the NDP. There were four independents and four empty seats.

With files from Glenn Johnson and Jack Branswell

Harper victory is in the cards, psychic predicts

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:37:00 GMT

By Trish Audette
Canwest News Service

Nadia Mitchell, a psychic at the Russian Tea Room, forecasts the fortunes of candidates in the upcoming Canadian federal elections. (Jimmy Jeong/Canwest News Service)

EDMONTON - The psychic taps an orange card called "The Devil," and considers NDP Leader Jack Layton's political future.

"There's some fears with the people wanting to elect him," Nadia Mitchell said, explaining the devil card highlights feelings of uncertainty.

"I see him doing very well for families... But there is definitely either a lot of doubts whether he's not the person for the job, or whether he could be the head honcho."

Mitchell, 22, reads Tarot cards, crystal balls and palms in Edmonton's Russian Tea Room. Dramatic in thick black eyeliner and long dark hair, she said she has had fortune-telling abilities since the age of four.

Asked to evaluate the outcome of Tuesday's election, the fourth-generation psychic anticipates a political landscape that will look very much as it did before the writ was dropped.

First of all, Mitchell foresees Stephen Harper returning to his role as prime minister.

"I definitely see him securing office," she said Monday. "I do believe he could be one of the best for the job.

"He still has a lot that he wants to accomplish. He really loves his job, he really loves what he does. If he could be in this direction for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, he would stay in it."

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, on the other hand, faces difficult challenges.

"It's telling me not a lot of people are trusting him," Mitchell said, studying the cards laid out on a little round table at the back of the downtown cafe. "Not a lot of people believe in him. His chances are fairly well, but it also shows me a lot of people not wanting to back him up."

Mitchell guesses a six-year sell-by date for the Liberal leader, who early in the election campaign was dogged by criticism for everything from his Green Shift plan to the awkward way he speaks English.

"I would say he's not meant to give up, but he is meant to be fed up," she said.

In Mitchell's cards, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May came through as a mother figure with a number of people rooting for her.

"She is meant to be in politics for a very long time," she said. "There is going to come a point where she is going to be taken very seriously."

Harper tours country, tells voters it's all about the economy

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:28:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Conservative laeder Stephen Harper ended his day in Vancouver after starting his day in P.E.I. on Monday. (Chris Wattie /Reuters)

VANCOUVER - Stephen Harper capped a final-day cross-country tour by urging voters in the crucial battleground of British Columbia to "think about the economy" when they cast their ballots Tuesday.

After starting his day in P.E.I., the prime minister ended it in Vancouver, where the Conservatives are locked in several three-way battles with the Liberals and the NDP.

Harper did not speak to the national media Monday, as he did not Sunday. However, the prime minister gave a one-on-one interview to Global BC, which commands a huge audience in the province.

Asked for his final message to voters, Harper asked them to think about pocketbook issues when they head to the polls.

"I would just say one thing . . . think about the economy. We're in some really tough economic times. We have great instability worldwide," Harper said.

"The choices are very clear. On the one hand, you have leaders of parties who advocate spending and taxation. . . . Our policies are very clear. We're going to keep taxes down on people. We're going to keep our budget balanced."

The prime minister denied recommending that Canadians invest more of their savings in the stock market when he said this week that the recent market decline presented a "great buying opportunity."

"I did not say that. I simply made some comments about how markets work," Harper said.

"What ordinary people do is they have a lot of savings, they invest conservatively, they invest for the long term and they stick with it, whether prices go up or down. That's essentially what the government of Canada is going to do under my leadership."

He later added: "Today, as you know, the Dow is way up in the United States. I don't know what some of these people are thinking who are jumping in and out, but that's not how a political leader can make policy."

After the Global interview, Harper addressed a rally of more than 150 people at the campaign office of Conservative candidate John Weston, who is hoping to unseat Blair Wilson, the former Liberal MP who joined the Green Party just before the election.

Harper slightly altered his standard stump speech to take aim at the NDP, which Conservative strategists now see as their biggest rival in the province.

"The NDP never saw a tax they didn't like," Harper said, noting the New Democrats voted against the government's cuts to the GST.

Harper flies Tuesday night to Calgary, where the Conservatives will hold their election-night rally. The prime minister will vote at a junior high school in his riding of Calgary Southwest before watching the election results at the hotel next to the convention centre where the rally will be held.

Harper started his day in Cornwall, P.E.I., where he reminded supporters the election will be close and encouraged them to "get every vote we can get."

If his party is re-elected, Harper's top priority will be to protect the economy, he said. "Friends, the No. 1 job of the next prime minister of Canada is to protect this country's economy, our earnings, our savings and jobs, at a time of global economic uncertainty."

The global financial crisis might have intensified, but Harper's core message hasn't changed much since he asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament on Sept. 7.

On Monday, he once again promised to stick to his government's approach of lowering taxes and keeping the budget in surplus.

"If you want a prime minister who will protect the economy, then I ask you for a mandate. If you want a prime minister who will experiment with the Canadian economy, then give Mr. Dion a mandate to impose a carbon tax," Harper said.

"Economic protection versus economic experimentation. That's why we, and not Mr. Dion, must get a mandate to govern this country."

Harper delivered much the same message at a tarmac rally in Fredericton, which the Conservatives hope will finally go blue after former Liberal cabinet minister Andy Scott decided not to run.

After touching down in Calgary, Harper will have travelled more than 5,100 kilometres on Tuesday in an 18-hour last-day push.

When he returns to Ottawa on Wednesday, Harper's campaign will have covered 46,877 kilometres by air and 40,850 kilometres by bus, visiting 63 towns and cities across the country.

Party officials estimate the combined distance is enough to circle the Earth one and a quarter times.

Harper breaks media silence with Cadman comments

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:25:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Global BC Monday that even Chuck Cadman's widow denies there was an attempt to bribe her late husband. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

VANCOUVER - After nearly two days of ignoring requests for media interviews, Prime Minister Stephen Harper answered questions on the eve of the federal election vote about a tape at the centre of the Chuck Cadman bribery controversy.

Harper made the comments Monday in an exclusive interview with Global BC.

The Conservative leader challenged the cassette tape on which author Tom Zytaruk asked him about an alleged attempt by Conservative officials to buy a House of Commons vote from the then-dying independent MP with a $1-million life insurance policy.

The prime minister said that even Cadman's widow, Dona Cadman - who's running in this election as a Tory candidate - denies there was an attempt to bribe her late husband.

"She certainly doesn't believe that and that's why she's running as a candidate in this election," Harper said in the interview.

"She's told in court proceedings what she knows. Fact of the matter is, as I've said before, this is all based on an allegation on a tape that has been edited and is an incomplete conversation."

Harper launched a $3.5-million defamation lawsuit against the Liberal party after it posted articles on its website accusing Harper of knowing that the bribe would be offered, an allegation he denied.

Earlier this week, an Ontario judge ordered another analysis of the tape and Harper asked former FBI agent Bruce Koenig to do the job.

Koenig said the portion of the tape dealing with the insurance policy "contains neither physical nor electronic splices, edits or alterations," according to a report entered in court Friday.

However, in a strange twist, the Tories released to Canwest News Service a report they say was the result of a request by the Liberals for another expert to review the tape.

The report, by forensic communication experts Harry Hollien and James Harnsberger, which is to be filed in court, says the Harper tape appears to be "modified for some reason," and the experts are "not able to conclude that this tape recording can be fully authenticated."

In the Global BC interview, Harper said some parts were doctored and others were not. However, "a doctored tape is a doctored tape," he said.

"These various expert reports disagree on some details. . . . They all agree the tape has been significantly doctored and that's a fact."

The prime minister had elected not to hold any news conferences in the last two days of the campaign, a move apparently designed to avoid any controversial statements before Tuesday's vote.

End the Harper 'nightmare,' Dion urges

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:10:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion referred to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government as a "nightmare" Monday evening. (The Gazette)

RICHMOND, B.C. - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion referred to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government as a "nightmare" Monday evening in his final speech of the 37-day federal election campaign.

Addressing one of the largest and most boisterous partisan crowds he attracted during his national tour, Dion called on New Democrats and Greens to vote Liberal "to be sure this nightmare of Stephen Harper will stop."

It was his fourth stump speech, capping a one-day sprint from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, each time appealing to all "progressive" voters to "go beyond partisan politics" and unite behind him to replace Harper with a Liberal government.

"Divided, nothing is possible; united everything is possible," Dion declared first at a rally in Fredericton, then in Montreal, Winnipeg and finally Richmond, where several hundred people interrupted him every few minutes with enthusiastic chants and capped the event by singing O Canada.

"Enough is enough about Stephen Harper," he told the crowd assembled at a hotel in the B.C. riding of Liberal incumbent Raymond Chan.

"It's time to change. We cannot wait. We need tonight - tomorrow night - to change it, to change, and to be sure that this nightmare with Stephen Harper will stop."

The other main theme of Dion's last lap was to emphasize the Grit's Green Shift plan to tax fossil fuels would provide sweeping income tax cuts for individuals, families and businesses. He repeatedly charged that Harper had "built his campaign on a lie" that the Green Shift was a tax grab.

"He lied about the Liberal fight against climate change," he charged. "The truth is you and your families and your employers will enjoy deep income tax cuts."

As he had in Winnipeg, Dion associated his Green Shift with an announcement that economist Paul Krugman had won the Nobel Prize for economics. However, the NDP quickly issued a statement saying, "Stephane Dion, you are no Paul Krugman."

The Liberals issued a statement indicating Krugman supports an across-the-board carbon tax offset by other tax cuts while the NDP issued a statement indicating Krugman expresses concern about revenues from carbon tax being dependent on pollution.

His sprint began at a rally in Fredericton, where incumbent Paul Zed urged voters to elect "Mr. Green, not Mr. Mean." In the south shore of Montreal, where Bloc Quebecois MPs hold all the seats, Dion delivered a fiery speech calling for the replacement of Harper's "one-man show" with a "Liberal team." It was repeatedly punctuated by cheers and chants of "Liberals, Liberals" and "Dion, Dion."

Liberals say there are at least 40 ridings where Liberal candidates, running second place in the polls, could be tipped into victory if enough Greens and New Democrats shift to them at the ballot box.

Their hope is to hold most of the seats they already had and to win enough new ones, with the help of NDP or Green support, to win a minority government.

The Liberals had 95 of 308 seats in the House of Commons when Parliament was dissolved.

Harper, for a second day, refused to take questions from reporters.

"Today he doesn't want to accept any questions. Today he will not explain himself," Dion said.

"He will continue to lie about the Liberal climate change plan. He will say nothing about the cuts. But I challenge him to recognize that we have huge tax cuts for the income for our families and our companies in the Liberal plan. And you all know that it is the truth, that he is lying."

Dion appeared undisturbed by ambivalent comments of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May about whether she wants her supporters to vote Liberal if it would make the difference in defeating a Conservative candidate.

"She speaks for herself and I speak for myself, but she's said many times, and she repeated it yesterday, that Canada needs myself as prime minister for the sake of the environment and the fight against climate change," he told a news conference, repeating his latest mantra: "Go green, vote red."

Dion said during the rallies that he was not calling for strategic voting but for "a vote of conviction" on the environment, the economy and social justice.

Automated phone calls urge vote for candidate who withdrew

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

NDP candidate Julian West left the race after controversy over a public-nudity incident 12 years ago. (Wendy-Anne Thompson/The Province)

VICTORIA - A number of residents in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding received recorded telephone messages Monday, urging them to vote for NDP candidate Julian West - who left the race after controversy over a public-nudity incident 12 years ago.

Irene Wright, executive member of the NDP's federal riding association for Saanich-Gulf Islands, said Monday night people started phoning her around 5 p.m. to say they had received an automated call encouraging them to vote for West in Tuesday's election.

A woman's voice in the recording said the call was endorsed by Bill Graham, president of the NDP Saanich-Gulf Islands riding association, and from the "Progressive Voters Association of Saanich-Gulf Islands."

By using caller identification information, the call's origin appeared to be the fax number at Graham's address.

"It's not coming from our fax machine," said Graham. "Somebody is fraudulently using our name and our fax number to send out a misleading message."

Graham said he has checked with the federal and provincial NDP campaign offices, who told him that they have not contracted any automated calls to be put out in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.

A vote for West would be considered a spoiled ballot.

It is possible to "spoof" phone networks into displaying false caller ID numbers using a number of methods, including computers and other external hardware.

Complaints have been filed with Saanich police, the RCMP and Elections Canada.

Elections Canada website back up

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - The Elections Canada website is up and running after an unidentified problem Tuesday morning left voters with error codes when they tried to obtain such information as where to cast their ballots

Elections Canada spokesman David Rutherford said the link for the "Voter Information Service" went down for about 30 minutes around 10 a.m. but was operational by about noon. Rutherford said the server went down after it became swamped with requests and was unable to say if the site would be operational all day.

"All I can tell you is that we are looking into it. We are taking this very seriously," he said. "The main thing is that the server and the website are up and running so people can access it now."

Voters may call toll-free 1-800-463-6868 and speak to an agent if they require information, Rutherford said.

Global National delivers complete election night coverage

jgreen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:46:00 GMT

Global National anchor Kevin Newman leads the Global National team in providing comprehensive Decision 2008 coverage on election night. (Dominic Schaefer/Global TV)

Global National's election night coverage begins at the following times on Tuesday, October 14th:

Atlantic Canada – 7 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. AT
QC, ON, MB, SK, AB – 9:00 p.m. ET
BC – 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT

National and local coverage airing on all Global News and CHCH, CHEK, CHBC, CHCA stations.

Following its unprecedented "People's Express" cross-Canada election tour, Global National continues to focus on Canadians' priorities as the team unveils its most ambitious election night coverage ever.

With its "Decision 2008: Your Priorities. Their Promises" federal election coverage, the Global National, Global News and CHCH, CHEK, CHBC, CHCA News teams have the entire country covered, reporting live from each leader's headquarters, and providing live updates from local ridings coast-to-coast.

Global National team: Anchor and executive editor Kevin Newman leads the team with wall-to-wall national coverage from Global National's election headquarters in Toronto. After travelling across the country on "The People's Express" election tour, Newman will take the priorities he's learned from local residents and bring unique perspective and insight Canadians won't find on any other newscast.

Ottawa bureau chief Jacques Bourbeau and correspondent Peter Harris will cover off the Conservative headquarters of Stephen Harper
Hannah Thibedeau and David Akin with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion
Ben O'Hara-Byrne with NDP leader Jack Layton
and Lauren McNabb with Green Party leader Elizabeth May

Live, interactive public forum: Correspondent Mike Armstrong will host a live, interactive public forum in Kingston, Ontario at the former headquarters of Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald.

Panellists: Global News anchor Leslie Roberts hosts an esteemed panel of political experts including:

University of Calgary political science professor Tom Flanagan
Former Chief of Staff for Prime Minister Paul Martin Tim Murphy
Conservative strategist Lisa Samson
Former BC NDP leader Joy MacPhail
Former deputy leader of the Green Party David Chernushenko
National Post political columnist Don Martin
Montreal Gazette political columnist Josée Legault
Ipsos-Reid president Darrell Bricker
CPAC's Sunday Sound Off host Catherine Clark
Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Monte Solberg
Liberal MP Reg Alcock
Former NDP leader Alexa McDonaugh

Complete local coverage: Viewers will also get the complete local picture with regional coverage in 20-minute rotations from their Global News, CHCH News Hamilton, CHCA News Red Deer, CHEK News Vancouver Island and CHBC Kelowna stations.

Global News Ontario: Anchor Leslie Roberts hosts the national panel discussion, while anchors Anne-Marie Mediwake and Alan Carter provide in-depth breakdown of the ridings from across Ontario.

CHCH News Hamilton: CHCH News will have the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara regions covered. Anchor Dan McLean and the news team will set the scene locally with live coverage from all of the key ridings and analysis by local panellists.

Global Winnipeg: Anchors Peter Chura and Eva Kovacs lead the Manitoba-wide local election show with political science professor Dr. Chris Adams providing insight.

Global Saskatoon and Regina: Anchors Jill Morgan and Lisa Dutton team up for a Saskatchewan-wide election broadcast.

Global Calgary and Lethbridge: Senior anchor Gord Gillies quarterbacks complete local coverage for southern Alberta, Tony Tighe leads a panel discussion at Stephen Harper's Calgary headquarters, and Todd Gallant hosts a unique public forum with "Todd's Political Party".

Global Edmonton and CHCA News Red Deer: Anchors Lynda Steele and Gord Steinke provide live local coverage for central Albertans with in-depth analysis from University of Alberta political science professor Steve Patten.

Global BC, CHEK News Vancouver Island, CHBC Kelowna, CKPG-TV Prince George and CFJC-TV Kamloops: Beginning at 6:45 p.m. PT, Global BC will air a province-wide, comprehensive election show hosted by anchors Tony Parsons, Chris Gailus, Deborra Hope and Jill Krop.

Online at www.globaltv.com/election: Global National's dedicated, multi-level election website provides Canadians with enhanced interactive election night coverage where viewers can access a live stream of the broadcast starting at 9 p.m. ET. Hosted by Global News reporter Darryl Konynenbelt, website visitors can get the latest real-time riding results, get involved with instant polling and chat live with special guests and bloggers.

Liberals' survival under Dion a long shot from the start

aterry — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:40:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

There will be considerable pressure on Liberal leader Stephane Dion to move aside. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberals are expected to move swiftly to dump leader Stephane Dion in the wake of their losses on election night.

Those close to him said he probably would not resign unless the Liberals were reduced to 40 seats or fewer. But there will be considerable pressure on Dion to move aside and make way for rivals who have been waiting in the wings since he won the leadership, almost by accident, in December 2006.

In the last election, the Liberals won 103 seats. By falling far short of matching that mark in Tuesday's vote, Dion's chances of fending off discontent are likely low.

The party constitution provides for appointment of an interim leader by the Liberal executive, in consultation with caucus, when a leader resigns, and the holding of a leadership vote within six months.

Given the state of the party's finances, a vote to replace Dion could be held sooner than that, and could be conducted online and by phone, instead of an expensive convention.

The survival of the Liberals on election night was a long shot under Dion from the start.

The 53-year-old Montreal MP, a former professor who boasts few old-style political skills, cut a lonely, even isolated, figure in the opening couple of weeks of the campaign.

His "dream team" of former leadership rivals fanned across the country to shore up Liberal support. And it will be some members of that team who step in from the wings to try to replace him.

From the beginning, expectations of how Dion would perform in the campaign were low, significantly in the party backrooms where the erudite Michael Ignatieff and the veteran Bob Rae had been the chosen ones to replace Paul Martin as leader. Dion leapt ahead of those two front-runners, thanks to leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy channelling his votes Dion's way. Many Liberals have never forgiven Kennedy.

Ignatieff, Rae and other members of the team will claim some credit for the Liberals surviving the election at all, as will former prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, who pulled through for Dion when it was safe to make a show of it without suggesting Dion was weak and grasping for their help.

Although the Liberals gained momentum in the week before the vote, and Dion's performance had improved, doubts about his skills were renewed by CTV tapes showing his difficulty hearing and understanding a question.

He was bound to find himself isolated again when the dust settles after the vote, if those who were uncomfortable with him at the helm all along find they are no more at ease with him now.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper faltered on economic leadership, giving Liberals hope they could pull back from the precipice, despite, one could argue - not because of - Dion and his beloved Green Shift plan to transfer taxes from income to fossil fuels.

Dion was surrounded by an entourage whose members were almost all inexperienced in running national campaigns. He was undermined by anonymous Liberals who regarded him as a loser. He faced pundits hammering nails in his political coffin from day one.

The man who stared down Quebec separatists after the 1995 referendum and spent eight years as federal intergovernmental affairs minister claimed at first to enjoy the role of underdog, repeating a mantra that it was not the first time he had been grossly underestimated.

It turns out he met low expectations and Liberals will waste little time pushing him aside.

Dion's days as Liberal leader likely numbered

By Norma Greenaway
Canwest News Service

Justin Trudeau shakes hands with excited supporters at his Papineau riding office after being declared winner in the Papineau riding in Montreal, Oct. 14. Should Dion throw in the towel, Trudeau could be a contender for the Liberal leadership. (Vincenzo D'Alto/The Gazette)

OTTAWA - The field of candidates to replace Stephane Dion - if a leadership race occurs as quickly as some expect - runs from obvious contenders to young up-and-comers.

The two biggest names are Michael Ignatieff, the Harvard professor turned politician, and Bob Rae, the NDP premier of Ontario in the early 1990s who, after years out of elected politics, re-entered the game to run for the slot vacated by Paul Martin.

Most Liberals expected one of those two to win the leadership in 2006, but their vote split the majority of delegates, and Dion successfully came up the middle.

Ignatieff, who had the support of most of the Liberal caucus, finished second and Rae finished third.

Both men have proved good team players - in public, at least - since the leadership. Ignatieff, deputy Liberal leader, and Rae, the party's foreign affairs critic, joined the struggling Dion on the campaign trail, where they bucked up partisan crowds with biting and eloquent critiques of the Stephen Harper government that left many Liberals wishing the contest almost two years ago had ended differently.

There is some speculation that Ignatieff, 61, and Rae, 60, will not both make the run again, and may even come to a gentlemen's agreement about which one should carry on.

Political scientist Stephen Clarkson, who has written extensively about the Liberal party, doesn't buy the scenario. Clarkson, who teaches at the University of Toronto, says he expects both to be on the ballot, despite their age.

"They both made major, major life-changing decisions to go into this game," Clarkson said in an interview. "They both love the game. They are both good at it."

Other possible contenders come from a younger generation. Among them:

Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison, 41, a former Progressive Conservative MP who ran in the last Liberal leadership to firm up his Grit credentials.
Gerard Kennedy, 48, a former Ontario education minister who sought a Toronto seat in the federal election. He was the kingmaker at the 2006 Liberal leadership, throwing his support behind Dion on the final ballot and putting him over the top.
Dominic LeBlanc, 40, an articulate bilingual MP from New Brunswick, who has raised his profile as the party's justice critic since the beginning of the year.

Liberal MPs such as Martha Hall Finlay and Ken Dryden, both of whom ran last time, are unlikely starters next time out.

But a story speculating on Liberal leadership would be incomplete without throwing in the name of Justin Trudeau, the 36-year-old son of the late Pierre Trudeau, who was among those who stumped with Dion in the last week.

Trudeau, a father and husband, entered elected politics after working on the sidelines of such projects as the party's youth task force.

Many immigrants don't understand voting process: poll

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:28:00 GMT

By Darah Hansen and Douglas Ward
Canwest News Service

According to Canadian Immigrant Magazine, most newcomers - unlike new Canadian citizen and first-time voter Madan Lal Bassi - don't understand the federal election process. (Bill Keay/Vancouver Sun)

VANCOUVER - Madan Lal Bassi has accomplished many things over the past 63 years.

He is a husband and father, a veteran of the Indian Air Force, a speaker of four languages, a globetrotter and proud new Canadian citizen.

On Tuesday, he will add "voter" to that list as the Burnaby, B.C., resident casts a ballot in a federal election for the very first time.

"I am very excited," said Bassi, a native of India who became a Canadian citizen last year.

"I've been watching Stephen Harper and (Stephane) Dion and the other guys to see how they can run the country better."

Bassi said it was his military service that originally kept him from voting in his native India. For 15 years, until he was 36, he was stationed far away from home and never able to cast a ballot in his hometown in the Punjab.

After leaving the air force, Bassi went to Qatar and Oman where he worked as a senior safety and security officer for about two decades. Again, he was unable to vote.

In 2002, he immigrated to Canada, and became a citizen in August 2007.

"It was a very important and emotional day for me. For the first time in my life I was able to vote, something I never did in my country in India because most of the time I remained away," he said.

Bassi hasn't wasted any time getting ready for the big day.

He's registered with Elections Canada, and spent the past few weeks combing through newspapers and listening to the radio to better inform himself on the candidates in his riding and their party platforms.

Bassi is ahead of most Canadian newcomers and first-time voters, said Nick Noorani, an immigrant advocate and publisher of the Vancouver-based Canadian Immigrant Magazine.

According to a recent, informal online poll conducted by the magazine, 69 per cent of readers surveyed said they don't understand how the federal election process works.

And 72 per cent said they weren't aware they are legally entitled to take time off work to vote.

Noorani said the numbers could mean many people who are eligible simply just won't vote.

"It's scary," he said. "If they don't know how to vote and how to engage in the political system, there is a huge problem."

According to the poll, the top issues among Canadian newcomers include the economy, health care, jobs and skills recognition, followed by law and order and family reunification.

When asked which party best represents immigrant issues, no federal political party stood out as a champion, with the Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP ranking about equally (25 per cent, 25 per cent and 23 per cent respectively).

Bassi said he's narrowed his choice to the NDP and Liberals, but remains undecided on which party is stronger on his top issues, including the environment, the economy and health care.

His final choice will be made in the privacy of the ballot box.

"I'm ready," he said.

Duceppe predicts Tory minority

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:51:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe predicted Monday that Quebecers will prevent Prime Minister Stephen Harper from forming a majority government. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

DOLBEAU-MISTASSINI, Que. - Quebecers will prevent Prime Minister Stephen Harper from forming a majority government when Canadians go to the polls, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe predicted Monday.

While Duceppe has criss-crossed Quebec warning about the threat of Harper forming a majority government, Duceppe predicts a third minority government in a row.

"It is in Quebec that we will prevent a majority," Duceppe told supporters.

Speaking later to reporters, Duceppe dismissed suggestions that having Quebec vote one way and the rest of Canada another in a minority government will exacerbate tensions between Quebec and the rest of the country.

Duceppe pointed out that former Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson formed three minority governments in the 1960s.

"People were able to find ways to co-operate for the benefit of citizens."

Monday, Duceppe took his campaign to the riding of Roberval-Lac St. Jean. The Conservatives hold two of the three seats in the traditionally proudly sovereigntist region however, one of them, Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, is trailing in public opinion polls in Jonquiere-Alma.

In Roberval, polls indicate there is a tighter race between Bloc candidate Claude Pilote and Conservative incumbent Denis Lebel, former mayor of Roberval.

Duceppe said it is important to vote for Bloc candidates who will stand up for Quebec - not Conservative "yes men" who will be "in shackles" and obliged to do Harper's bidding.

"In Quebec we are too proud to obey Stephen Harper."

Careful to make the distinction, Duceppe said Conservative Denis Lebel is a nice guy but he can't do much for the region because Conservative MPs have to toe the Tory line.

"In Roberval-Lac St. Jean, it isn't the Conservative candidate who the principal question, it is the shackles that are imposed on him that is the problem."

"The problem of Conservative MPs like Denis Lebel is that he has to obey Stephen Harper. Obeying Stephen Harper means letting down forestry and manufacturing workers and that is what happened to Denis Lebel."

Road to decision day: Campaign timeline

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:33:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks to a news conference to announce the election call following a meeting with Governor General Michaelle Jean at Rideau Hall in Ottawa Sept. 7. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Sept. 7:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper asks the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, triggering the third federal election in a little more than four years.

The Bloc Quebecois releases its platform.

Sept. 8:

The Conservatives roll out three attack ads titled "The Gamble," which focus on Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

The broadcast consortium decides against allowing Green leader Elizabeth May to participate in the televised leaders' debates, based on objections from other leaders.

Sept. 9:

The Conservatives are forced to alter a website that depicted an animated puffin defecating on Stephane Dion.

The Conservatives promise a two-cent cut to the excise tax on diesel fuel and aviation fuel.

The Conservative Party's "Puffin Poop" ad depicting a puffin defecating on Liberal leader Stephane Dion. (Canwest News Service)

Sept. 10:

Conservatives promise most troops will be out of Afghanistan when the current commitment ends in 2011.

NDP Leader Jack Layton unveils a plan to help the manufacturing industry.

Reacting to criticism, the PM and the NDP leader relent and say Elizabeth May should be allowed in the debates. The broadcast consortium invites her to participate.

Sept. 11:

Jack Layton unveils an environment policy that includes a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases.

A staffer on the Conservative campaign is suspended after suggesting the father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan was critical of Stephen Harper for partisan reasons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and senior party spokesman Ryan Sparrow on the Conservative campaign plane in 2006. (Canwest News Service)

Sept. 12:

A public opinion poll by Harris Decima puts the Conservatives in majority territory, just more than 40 per cent.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe indicates Quebec's "nation" status should be enshrined in the Constitution.

Sept. 15:

North American stock markets tumble more than 500 points when prominent U.S. investment firm Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch is bought out by Bank of America.

Jack Layton unveils a $1-billion health-care plan to reduce the doctor shortage.

Sept. 16:

Parties call on Stephen Harper to release the costs of the Afghanistan mission.

Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz reads an apology in Ottawa after his "death-by-a-thousand-cold-cuts" remarks were made public. (Mike Carroccetto/The Ottawa Citizen)

Sept. 17:

Green party releases its platform.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz apologizes for jokes about the deadly listeriosis crisis he made during a conference call.

Sept. 18:

The European Central Bank along with central banks from Canada, England, Switzerland and Japan provide $180 billion to the U.S. Federal Reserve to help it weather the failure of several high-profile insurance companies and to keep the international financial system stable. Canada's contribution is $10 billion.

Sept. 21:

Green leader Elizabeth May leaves Vancouver for a seven-day train tour of Canada.

NDP leader Jack Layton speaks during a rally in Hamilton, Ont., Sept. 22. In an interview that day, Layton said he would consider entering into a coalition with the Liberals to prevent a Conservative majority. (Tyler Anderson/National Post)

Sept. 22:

Stephen Harper announces changes to youth crime laws that would introduce life sentences for 14-year-olds, remove conditional sentencing for a long list of offences and remove privacy provisions for young offenders.

Liberals release their election platform.

Jack Layton muses about forming a coalition with other parties, but is rebuffed by Stephane Dion.

Sept. 23:

Stephen Harper says "ordinary people" can't relate to funding complaints by gala-going artists.

Sept. 24:

Former Liberal party president Stephen LeDrew criticizes the Liberal campaign in an opinion piece in the National Post. He says Liberals will get a "drubbing" on election day.

Leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, stops off in Dorval on her way to Montreal as a part of her cross-country whistle-stop tour by train. (Natasha Fillion/Canwest News Service)

Sept. 25:

A newspaper interview with Elizabeth May seems to suggest she endorses strategic voting instead of voting for her candidates. She later denies it.

Sept. 28:

NDP releases its platform.

Sept. 29:

U.S. House of Representatives votes down a $700-billion US bailout of the financial industry. Stock markets around the world plunge.

Sept. 30:

Liberal Bob Rae shows a video of speeches on the Iraq war by former Australian prime minister John Howard and Stephen Harper from 2003 in which Harper uses some of the same phrases as Howard. The Conservative staffer who wrote the speech resigns.

A Liberal advertisement shows a split screen of Howard's speech and Harper's speech two days later. (Canwest News Service)

Oct. 1:

French-language leaders' debate at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Ipsos Reid polling calls Stephane Dion the victor.

Oct. 2:

English-language leaders' debate at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Ipsos Reid polling suggests Stephen Harper won.

Oct. 3:

The Green party releases its first national television ads.

Oct. 4:

Polling suggests chances of a Harper majority are slipping amid falling support in Quebec.

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe joins thousands of Quebeckers at a massive Anti-Harper demonstration in Montreal, on Oct. 5. (Canwest News Service)

Oct. 7:

Conservative platform released.

Stephen Harper says the plunge in stock markets has created "great buying opportunities" for those seeking bargains.

Oct. 8:

Voter turnout during the three days of advance polling is lower in every province except Quebec, according to preliminary figures released by Elections Canada.

Oct. 9:

The Afghanistan mission could cost taxpayers at least $18.1 billion by 2011, the parliamentary budget officer reports.

Stephane Dion stumbles over questions in an interview with a television network. Stephen Harper reacts critically.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion gets hooked up with a microphone before his Oct. 10 television interview in Toronto, where he stumbled numerous times. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

Oct. 10:

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty makes $25 billion available to banks for mortgage relief through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Agency.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index suffers its worst weekly loss in almost 70 years. The Canadian dollar has its biggest one-day drop in almost 40 years.

Oct. 11:

Stephane Dion says implementation of platform pledges on child care, doctor training and a national drug-insurance plan could be delayed because of the economic slowdown.

Oct. 13:

Conservative and Liberal leaders make coast-to-coast treks in final appeal for votes.

Oct. 14:

Election day. Polls are open 12 hours a day across time zones.

Layton targets four Liberal seats in Toronto

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:52:00 GMT

By Ben O'Hara Byrne and Glenn Johnson
Canwest News Service

NDP Leader Jack Layton was on a bus tour of Toronto-area targeted ridings on Monday. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)

ETOBICOKE, Ont. -NDP Leader Jack Layton is staying grounded for the final day of the campaign, choosing a bus tour of Toronto-area targeted ridings, instead of the cross-country marathons of past elections.

Layton wants to concentrate on seats in the Toronto area that are not currently held by his party. He began the final day of the campaign alongside Ed Broadbent, the man who helped the NDP to its greatest election success 20 years ago.

In Oshawa, Ont., Layton said this election is about families and jobs.

"A lot of people are feeling very anxious about the economic situation and no one knows that better than the people in Oshawa where we've watched some best jobs in this country disappear because of a complete lack strategy or even a sense of caring about the issue from our government," Layton said.

The NDP leader was critical of Stephen Harper's government and its policies, but spent much of his time targeting his main competition for votes - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

"You can't walk away from 43 confidence motions where you supported Mr. Harper and claim somehow that you're now going to lead some kind of a progressive group. It's not on. People won't buy it."

Layton said Liberal MPs had a choice to support the Harper minority government.

"Why wouldn't he rally his own members of Parliament to stand up to Stephen Harper for the entire last year? It's Harper's policies but it's Dion's responsibility and we shouldn't give him anymore responsibility."

In Etobicoke, Ont., Layton focused heavily on immigration issues.

"We of course appreciate people who drive taxis, but if we have someone who's a doctor and we have five million Canadians who have not got a family doctor, then we need that doctor looking after our families," Layton said.

He also criticized a new emphasis on temporary foreign workers, the slow pace of family reunification and the difficulty in obtaining temporary visas for specials occasions.

"We're not meeting our immigration targets, we're not having enough babies here in Canada so we need more people coming and yet we're not meeting the targets year after year no matter which of these other two parties has been in government."

Layton called on his supporters to work hard to rally other progressive voters behind the NDP.

"I don't care how they voted in the past, or what sign they've got up on their lawn, I want you to talk to them, I want you to invite them to come to our table," said Layton, who spent Monday visiting four Toronto-area ridings currently held by Liberals.

Layton spoke to 75 supporters in Oshawa early Monday, hoping his second visit to the riding will help push candidate and former local Canadian Auto Workers union leader Mike Shields to victory.

With layoffs at GM and a crisis in the North American automotive industry, Oshawa is a symbolic riding for the NDP in a campaign that's spent a lot of time focusing on the impact of manufacturing job losses and what they see as the Conservative's failure to protect Canada's middle class.

The NDP haven't won in Oshawa since Ed Broadbent won his last of five elections in 1988, one of a record 43 seats the party won in that election.

Despite signs of softening support for the party, especially in southern Ontario, NDP insiders as well as Broadbent himself believe the NDP will win a record number of seats in this election.

Broadbent, 72, introduced Layton with some comments and reminded crowd of how he upset an incumbent Tory MP to win the riding 40 years ago this year despite being told the NDP couldn't win. But Broadbent reserved his attack for Dion.

"The leader of the Liberal party couldn't have picked a worse time to be introducing his particular variation of the carbon tax, which is a job loser," Broadbent said.

Harper crosses Canada to 'get out every vote'

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:58:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during a campaign rally in Cornwall, P.E.I. on Monday. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

FREDERICTON - Stephen Harper boarded a plane for his final stop of the campaign Monday after rallying supporters to "get out every vote we can" to ensure the Conservatives stay in power.

"This a close election, friends. There are no guarantees. We need to win every seat we can. We need to get out every vote we can," Harper told more than 100 supporters huddled in the hangar of a charter-airline firm.

The prime minister was making his second stop in Fredericton, which the Tories are confident they can finally turn blue. The riding was held by former Liberal cabinet minister Andy Scott for 15 years before he decided not to run again.

Minutes after reminding supporters the election will be close, Harper boarded his baby-blue campaign plane again for a six-hour flight to Vancouver.

The prime minister will hold a rally at the campaign office of John Weston, the Conservative candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country.

Before Parliament was dissolved, the riding was held by Blair Wilson, the former Liberal MP who joined the Green Party just before the election.

Harper delivered virtually the same message at an early-morning rally in Cornwall, P.E.I.

With polls suggesting the Conservatives will fall short of a majority, supporters gathered at a community centre as speakers blared the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.

Harper took the stage with his wife, Laureen Harper, and told the crowd of about 500 people - some waving "Harper" placards, some toting signs that said "Real Plan" - that he is proud of the campaign his party has run.

If his party is re-elected, Harper's top priority will be to protect the economy, he said.

"Friends, the number one job of the next prime minister of Canada is to protect this country's economy, our earnings, our savings and jobs, at a time of global economic uncertainty."

The closing days of the campaign have been dominated by talk of the economy, as countries across the globe scramble to shore up their financial systems.

The global financial crisis might have intensified, but Harper's core message hasn't changed much since he asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament on Sept. 7.

On Monday, he once again promised to stick to his government's approach of lowering taxes and keeping the budget in surplus. However, he dropped his appeal for a "strong" mandate, asking only that his party form government again. The Conservatives are downplaying their chances to discourage left-leaning voters from flocking to the Liberals at the last minute to block a Conservative majority.

"Economic protection versus economic experimentation. That's why we, and not Mr. Dion, must get a mandate to govern this country."

Once again, Harper did not take questions from the national media travelling with his campaign. The prime minister has elected not to hold any news conferences in the last two days of the campaign, a move apparently designed to avoid any controversial statements before Tuesday's vote.

Harper's morning tour suggests he believes the party can break through in Atlantic Canada, traditionally seen as a Liberal stronghold.

The P.E.I. rally was held in the riding of Liberal incumbent Wayne Easter, a former cabinet minister.

In Vancouver, the prime minister will do interviews with the local outlet of Global TV and Fairchild TV, a Chinese-language network that has a big audience on the West Coast.

After his Vancouver stop, the prime minister will fly to Calgary, where his party will hold its election-day rally.

By the end of the day, Harper will have travelled more than 5,103 kilometres on an 18-hour final campaign push.

On Sunday evening, a senior Conservative source said the party believes only about five Tory incumbents are at risk of being defeated. The Conservatives held 127 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons at dissolution, meaning they need another 28 to form a majority.

The senior source conceded that the party's campaign in Quebec has not gone as well as expected. However, the source is confident the party can make considerable gains in Ontario.

Dion appeals to progressive voters to stop Harper

jgreen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:54:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Liberal leader Stephane Dion launched a final five-stop cross-country sprint on Monday. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

MONTREAL - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion appealed Monday to all "progressive" voters who do not support the Conservatives to "go beyond partisan politics" and unite behind him to replace Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

His four-stop cross-country sprint from the Atlantic to the Pacific, began at a rally in Fredericton before stopping on the south shore of Montreal.

Dion's fiery address - which called for the replacement of Harper's "one-man show" with a "Liberal team" - was repeatedly punctuated by cheers and chants of "Liberals, Liberals" and "Dion, Dion."

Pitching to Greens, Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party supporters to swing behind the Liberals, Dion was on a last-ditch bid to counter the Conservative "distortion and lies" that his Green Shift plan is a tax grab rather than a four-year tax-cutting exercise that would put thousands of dollars in most families pockets.

Dion attacked deputy NDP leader Thomas Mulcair at a rally of about 150 people crammed into a restaurant. Mulcair won a 2007 byelection in the longtime Liberal bastion of Outremont. Dion charged in French that when Mulcair was Quebec's Liberal government environment minister, he made decisions based on partisan affiliation.

"I never questioned the sincerity of environmentalists with whom I worked and I never asked for whom they voted," Dion said, referring to his months as environment minister in the minority Liberal government that Harper defeated in 2006.

Their hope is to hold most of the seats they already had and to win enough new ones, with the help of NDP or Green support, to win a minority government.

The Liberals had 95 of 308 seats in the House of Commons when Parliament was dissolved. Dion vowed to work until the last minute, stopping in Fredericton, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver before returning to his home riding in Montreal on election day.

"Divided, nothing is possible; united everything is possible," Dion declared at both rallies, where one of his two main messages was that the minority Conservative government could be defeated if the centre and left is not split three ways. "We need to pull our vote together."

"We need all the progressive vote to come together because otherwise we will have more of Stephen Harper," Dion said.

Harper, for a second day, refused to take questions from reporters.

"Today he doesn't want to accept any questions. Today he will not explain himself," Dion said.

His other key message on the eve of Tuesday's vote is that Harper "has built his campaign on a lie" about the Liberal platform.

"He will be today and he will continue to lie about the Liberal climate change plan. He will say nothing about the cuts. But I challenge him to recognize that we have huge tax cuts for the income for our families and our companies in the Liberal plan. And you all know that it is the truth, that he is lying."

Dion appeared undisturbed by apparent confusion among the Greens about whether Green Party Leader Elizabeth May wants her supporters to vote Liberal if it would make the difference in defeating a Conservative candidate.

She has suggested Greens make that calculation but she has also denied that she is advocating strategic voting.

Dion said during the rally that he was not calling for strategic voting but for "a vote of conviction" on the environment, the economy and social justice.

Tory MP confronts BQ leader

jgreen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:28:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe (right) ignores Luc Harvey (centre), a local Conservative party candidate, as he tours a market in Quebec City on Sunday. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

QUEBEC - As the election campaign headed into the home stretch, Quebec City, scene of the battle that decided Canada's future, became a battleground over the future of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government with both Harper and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe taking their campaigns to Quebec's capital.

While Harper's Conservatives nearly wiped the Bloc off the electoral map in the last election, a series of campaign missteps by Harper on issues like culture and young offenders have left a number of Conservative MPs in Quebec City fighting for their political futures.

Emotions are running so high that when Duceppe toured the Ste-Foy farmers market he suddenly found himself accosted by Conservative MP Luc Harvey.

Duceppe was glad-handing with shoppers and farmers when Harvey approached the Bloc leader.

"Mr. Duceppe, talk to us about your record, what about your record," Harvey called out to Duceppe. "You've accomplished nothing in 18 years."

After trying to ignore Harvey, Duceppe asked him to be polite. When Harvey persisted, Duceppe turned to the RCMP.

"Move him aside, he's an imbecile," Duceppe ordered. "An imbecile?" asked a reporter.

"Yes, he's an imbecile," responded Duceppe. "(One day) He asked why Canada wasn't part of the European Union."

Asked why he decided to accost Duceppe during his visit to the riding of Louis Hebert, Harvey said he was in the neighbourhood and noticed Duceppe's campaign bus at the market. The national campaign had no idea he was going to do it, he insisted.

"It was a great opportunity today to take an accounting of his presence in Ottawa for the last 18 years," said Harvey, saying Conservatives MPs in Quebec City have gotten more accomplished for the region in two years than the Bloc has in 18.

Harvey's stunt overshadowed Duceppe's message, however it also risked overshadowing his own leader's visit to Quebec City. It also prompted the Bloc to refuse to disclose details of Monday's itinerary to reporters, saying only that they would be campaigning in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean riding of Roberval, currently held by Conservative MP Denis Lebel.

Speaking earlier to reporters, Duceppe said Harper is showing his arrogance by saying he will forge ahead with his own agenda even if he only forms a minority government.

"It is that arrogance that he has shown over the past two and a half years and that he is showing in this campaign. He is completely ignoring the will of the population. It is a denial of democracy."

Speaking later to supporters in Levis, south of Quebec City, Duceppe dismissed Harper's rallies in Longueuil and Quebec City as "love ins," a reference to the desperate last minute rally the federalist side held in the final days of the 1995 referendum on sovereignty.

"We have already seen that movie, we know what comes next," Duceppe told an enthusiastic and optimistic crowd, saying Harper hasn't kept his promise to resolve the fiscal imbalance between the federal and provincial governments or his promise for Quebec to have a seat at UNESCO.

Claude Lachance, former PQ MNA for the riding of Bellechasse, said he has seen a sea change in the election campaign over the past few weeks in the Quebec City area and in the riding of Levis-Bellechasse as residents move from the Conservatives back to the Bloc Quebecois.

"Three weeks ago, I never thought I would have seen this."

NDP blitz southern Ontario for votes

jgreen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:11:00 GMT

By Mike De Souza and Ben O'Hara-Byrne
Canwest News Service

NDP leader Jack Layton made a brief appearance in Windsor Sunday and said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper ignored the warnings signs of economic turmoil. (Scott Webster/The Windsor Star)

LONDON, Ont. - NDP Leader Jack Layton did a blitz of seven southern Ontario ridings on Sunday, blasting the Conservative government's inaction to help struggling sectors of the economy and rallying hundreds of New Democrats along the way.

"We've had Stephen Harper turn his back on the working families of this whole region," Layton told supporters in Essex.

The NDP is hoping to gain the riding from the Tories. "We could have a government that would actually start investing in manufacturing and create jobs here."

Essex is expected to be a tight three-way race between the Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats, like some other ridings in the region.

At each stop, Layton urged supporters to replace Conservatives with New Democrats, arguing the Liberals had propped up the Harper government and would not bring about real change.

"We're going to be travelling right up the 401 through the communities that are being so hard hit by this manufacturing jobs crisis," said Layton.

"A big part of the explanation of what we're facing right now is that we have a government and a prime minister in Stephen Harper, who is by the way the outgoing prime minster, who simply doesn't care about the jobs being lost here in the economic heartland of this country."

Layton was scheduled to campaign well into the evening, visiting two ridings that are represented by New Democrats, as well as five others that he hopes to gain around Windsor, London, and Guelph.

He said his strategy is to reach out to struggling families and convince them the NDP is the only party that understands their situation.

"What we're looking for is a little hope in this context, we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and with an absence of leadership from Mr. Harper," Layton told reporters.

"Where's the hope, where are the ideas? He wants to give $50 billion (in corporate tax cuts) to big banks, we'll direct those funds to companies who can guarantee there will be employment for the middle class."

At another stop, where an estimated 4,000 manufacturing jobs were lost over the past five years, Layton spoke of a man who was struggling to survive on EI benefits while completing his high school diploma.

"`I can't make ends meet anymore,' he told me," Layton said. "'I'm maxed out on my credit card, I got to take the first job that comes along and it's breaking my heart but I have to walk away from getting my diploma and I have to take a part-time job at a minimum wage salary just to get some food on the table."'

At a stop in the riding of Welland, which was the fifth of the day as he made his way from Windsor along the 401 through southwestern Ontario, Layton reiterated the Conservatives have failed to do enough for the manufacturing sector.

The riding will lose 800 jobs when John Deere closes next year and Layton attacked Harper for not doing enough to protect jobs

"What do you do when you sit at that Thanksgiving table, when you've just lost your job, I don't think the prime minister has any clue about that."

He also slammed John Deere shutting down despite turning big profits, enough to be in line to take advantage of the $50 billion corporate tax cuts put in place by the Conservatives last year.

"How do they say thank you to the people of Canada for that big gift? They turf the workers out and shut the doors and that is wrong, it must not be allowed to happen here in Canada."

Harper's targeted policies to the middle class haven't worked, Layton stressed.

"Mr. Harper has failed the middle class families of Canada. He came in with trinkets, little tax adjustments here and there. He had no comprehension about what hundreds of thousands of them are going through," he said.

"Most recently we saw them watch as their pensions and their RRSPs were disappearing before their eyes and he tells them to go off and invest in the stock market. What planet is he living on?"

Earlier Layton noted that the race would be close throughout the country.

"I think a lot more families are going to sit down and talk about their choices over this weekend than we've seen in a long time in Canadian politics."

Dion won't step down if he loses

jgreen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:08:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill
Canwest News Service

Stephane Dion indicated Sunday he will not step down as Liberal leader if he loses the election. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

OTTAWA - Declaring several times that "I am not a quitter," Stephane Dion indicated Sunday he will not step down as Liberal leader if he loses the election that he says is "a choice between lies and honesty."

The Montreal MP emphasized his determination several times to reporters as he blitzed three Ontario ridings, calling on New Democrats and Greens to shift their votes to the Liberals and potentially elect enough MPs on Tuesday to defeat "the most secretive, very conservative government in history."

The only exception Dion made was in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, where the Liberals are not running a candidate against Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and are campaigning to help her defeat Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Falling short of a direct appeal for strategic voting, May hinted supporters should calculate their chances of defeating Conservatives by voting Liberal.

She said Greens could not alone put Liberals over the top in many ridings, but they should "vote accordingly."

But later Sunday the Green party released a statement stressing that May "has not called on voters to abandon Green party candidates."

"Ms. May did say that, `Being honest with the voters, I acknowledge that there is concern over vote-splitting in a small number of ridings. But I am not going to say 'vote Liberal here, vote NDP there."' the statement noted.

"I repeated over and over that I would not advise voters to vote for anyone other than Greens. I do not support strategic voting and I have not advised voters to choose any candidate other than Green."

Sunday Dion made his strongest pitch yet for Green party supporters to vote for the Grits in Tuesday's election, saying he's been endorsed by a Nobel Prize winning scientist as the only leader who will actually deal with climate change.

At a boisterous rally in the Ottawa riding of Orleans, Dion boasted that climate change scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria had endorsed him, that 250 economists are calling for a price on fossil fuels and that Elizabeth May had repeated again Sunday that she wants him to be prime minister.

"Elizabeth May and I can be counted on to level with Canadians," Dion pledged. "By coming together we can defeat Stephen Harper and give to Canada the greener prime minister you may have. So go green: vote red."

Dion appeared to misspeak slightly; he usually promises to be the "greenest" prime minister.

Dion called for the defeat of "the most secretive prime minister in Canadian history." Among the secrets he claimed Harper is keeping is the true cost of the government's proposed green plan. Harper said Saturday that the government plan would raise electricity costs by four per cent over a decade but Dion said "it must be much more than that."

Earlier Dion cited a call for Greens to vote Liberal by three Canadian scientists who shared in the 2007 Nobel Prize to former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He said when so many economists and environmentalists agree with the principle behind the Liberal Green Shift plan "it's a large coalition far beyond usual partisan politics."

On the heels of Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying the Conservatives would look for a new leader if he fails to win the Tuesday vote, a feisty Dion told a Toronto TV interviewer: "Well he's a quitter; I'm not."

Dion, leading a national campaign for his first time, repeated his declaration in other encounters with reporters during a bus tour of ridings in Toronto, Norwood, Ont. and Ottawa.

And he'll conduct a final push Monday when Dion will travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Liberals announced they have dubbed Dion's campaign plane "Progress Air" to reflect his call for unity among all "progressive voters" and that he will travel from Fredericton, N.B. to Vancouver on Monday, with whistle stops in Montreal and Winnipeg before returning to his home riding in Montreal on election day.

At a rally in Toronto Dion urged New Democrats and Greens to vote Liberal - avoiding a three-way split of anti-government votes that would leave the Conservatives in office. The Liberals need the other two parties to block Harper's re-election, he said.

"This is only possible if we pull together."

"This election is a choice between lies and honesty," he told about 150 supporters gathered in a restaurant hall, referring to Harper's repeated claims the Liberals will raise taxes even though their platform promises across-the-board tax cuts through the Green Shift tax on fossil fuels.

"Stephen Harper built his campaign on a lie. He must lose on this lie."

Other lies the Liberals have cited during the campaign are the Conservative's false claim the Liberals would claw back the $100 monthly child care benefit when they are increasing it; and a false claim by the Conservatives that the Liberals would raise the GST, when Dion was on record for more than a year saying he would not do that.

The Liberal war room on Sunday challenged Harper's claim that he keeps his commitments, citing the government's flip-flop on taxation of income trusts, Harper's call for an election a year before the fixed election date, an alleged breach of the Atlantic accord, the lack of a promised national patient wait times guarantee and the appointment of an unelected senator.

Dion also professed to be single minded about winning the election, rather than casting ahead to a possible loss and what the Liberal party would want.

"I will say I am not a quitter but the only goal we have now in the next two days is to win this election," he said on CTV's Question Period program.

Harper makes final pitch to Quebec voters who have fled to the Bloc

jgreen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:57:00 GMT

By Andrew Mayeda
Canwest News Service

Harper did not take questions from reporters while campaigning in Quebec on Sunday. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

SAINT-TITE, Que. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper served up baked beans on Sunday, but decided not to take questions from the national media - in a sign he hopes to avoid turning off voters with any controversial comments days before the election.

Harper normally takes 10 questions per day from national reporters traveling with his campaign.

But on Sunday, as he attended a centre for seniors here in this small town west of Quebec City, he did not take any.

Harper's chief spokesman, Kory Teneycke, said the prime minister has no further press conferences scheduled with campaign reporters for the rest of the campaign.

"We don't rule out doing a scrum if an issue presents itself that requires questions from the media," said Teneycke, adding the decision is "consistent" with the party's plan for the campaign.

On Saturday evening, one Conservative official said the party was considering the move because of the prime minister's tight schedule, while another said he would only take questions if there was a pressing matter on which to comment.

Party officials declined to elaborate on Sunday.

"There is no reason," said Harper's press secretary, Dimitri Soudas.

Harper has been doing a series of one-on-one interviews with local media and national TV networks in recent days.

In deciding not to speak to the national media, Harper appears to be trying to stay out of voters' faces in the crucial days before the Oct. 14 vote.

Harper ran into trouble at the end of the 2006 campaign, when he sought to calm fears of a "hidden agenda" by arguing a Conservative majority would be held in check by Liberal-appointed judges, bureaucrats and Senators.

The party's support slipped in the closing days of the campaign.

Harper chose a folksy setting for one of his final stops in Quebec, where some polls show the Conservatives' support collapsing.

The prime minister attended a brunch organized by the federally funded Western Festival of Saint Tite, which bills itself as the "biggest Western attraction in Eastern Canada."

Numerous politicians have attended the festival, including former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.

The festival is based in the riding of Saint-Maurice Champlain, once held by former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien. It received $100,000 funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage in June, according to government records.

Supporters in black cowboy hats chanted "Harper" as the prime minister stepped off his blue campaign bus Sunday morning.

In a brief speech, Harper predicted the result of the election will "probably" be another minority government, either led by his party or the Liberals. The prime minister has been dialing down expectations in recent days.

In an interview Saturday, he suggested he would step down if his party loses.

Harper also continued to defend himself against attacks by the Bloc Quebecois, which has opened a commanding lead over the Conservatives in the province.

The prime minister repeated his comment he is not the "devil incarnate," but with a twist.

This time, he said he is not a "devil in a cowboy hat."

"Our platform isn't a right-wing platform. Our platform is a platform based on families who work hard to succeed, a platform based on economic development, a platform based on providing stability at a time of economic uncertainty," he said.

After the speech, Harper accepted a pair of cowboy boots from local festival organizers.

He posed for a photo opportunity with a choir of children dressed in plaid shirts, who sang the national anthem. He then served baked beans to supporters who lined up for a buffet-style brunch.

Later, at a rally in Quebec City, Harper made his final pitch to voters in the province who have fled to the BQ.

"Voting for a Bloc candidate means sending to Ottawa an MP who will never be part of the government, who will always be in opposition, who will always be isolated in opposition," he told a rally of about 600 supporters at a convention centre in the provincial capital.

"Voting for a Conservative candidate means sending to Ottawa an MP who will be able to improve your economic situation, who will defend your values, and make your proposals a reality."

Harper flies to Charlottetown on Sunday evening.

He will campaign in Fredericton and Vancouver before flying to Calgary, where the party will hold its election-night rally.

Greens welcome the cash, but are investing in the future

jgreen — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:37:00 GMT

By Glenn Johnson
Canwest News Service

G reen Party leader Elizabeth May was door-knocking in Nova Scotia's Central Nova riding with her daughter on Saturday. (Paul Darrow/Canwest News Service)

National polls show voting Green isn't a protest vote, but they make the case that Canada's first-past-the-post system is "perverse" and needs to be replaced, Green Leader Elizabeth May said Saturday.

Door-knocking in Nova Scotia's Central Nova riding with her daughter Saturday, May said in an interview with Canwest News Service that her party is becoming a viable alternative on the Canadian political landscape.

On Saturday, Liberal leader Stephane Dion glowingly endorsed May and said he hopes she will soon be a member of Parliament.

"We want Elizabeth May in the Commons instead of Peter MacKay," Dion said of the battle in Central Nova, where the Greens struck a deal with the Liberals not to run a candidate in hopes of unseating the Tory cabinet minister.

The most recent Canwest News Service poll from Ipsos Reid shows the Greens are tracking at eight per cent popular support across Canada. To put that in context, the Bloc Quebecois was able to win 51 seats in the 2006 election with 10.5 per cent of the popular vote nationally.

Each vote also means cash for party coffers - votes from the 2006 election meant about $1.2 million for the party. This time, that total could be even higher, which May acknowledges will give her party the ability to have a stronger national voice.

The Greens got unprecedented attention during this campaign when May won the right to attend the televised leadership debates.

"It's obviously critical for us, but my goals are much more ambitious," May said.

May holds no illusions her party would translate its popular vote Tuesday into a large number of seats - but she insists she will be able to have some MPs in the Commons.

"We need as many Green votes as possible because we have ridings where we can elect Green MPs," May said.

But she is realistic that popular support doesn't mean her party is in the running everywhere it has a candidate.

"There is basically a very strong case for voting Green in 80 per cent of the ridings in the country," she said.

North Simcoe, Ont., Green candidate Valerie Powell was upset Saturday when Dion openly called for the Greens to abandon her and vote Liberal.

"It's insulting," Powell said, adding she has a right to attract as many votes as possible in a tight three-way race.

She also said May has confused Green members by endorsing Dion for prime minister.

May downplayed Powell's comments, but added she understands people are worried about so-called "protest votes."

"I want people to vote for Valerie Powell, but I know some people are looking at tight ridings and we can't be disrespectful of those voters who are struggling. They don't have a partisan agenda, they are concerned about the future of their country and their planet."

May said the long-term solution needs to be replacing the first-past-the-post system with proportional representation.

Duceppe says no cabinet minister at all is better than an appointed senator

aterry — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:18:00 GMT

Canwest News Service

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday to pledge not to appoint non-elected senators to cabinet. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

RIGAUD, Que. - Quebec is better off having nobody around the federal cabinet table than having "yes men" who won't stand up for Quebec's interests, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Saturday as he called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pledge not to appoint non-elected senators to cabinet.

"It is better to have nobody from Quebec say they support something that is against Quebec's interests than to have yes men who care about their limousines rather than the interests of Quebec."

Duceppe's comments come as a seat projection by the firm Ekos showed a majority could still be within reach of the Conservatives but that the party would likely be reduced to only five seats in Quebec - down from the 11 they held going into the election.

A new public opinion poll published Saturday showed that Harper's Conservatives have now dropped to third place in Quebec behind the Bloc and the Liberals.

The Leger Marketing poll taken for the Journal de Montreal between Oct. 6 and 9, showed the Bloc is at 37 per cent, the Liberals at 24 per cent and the Conservatives at 23 per cent.

The New Democrats are at 12 per cent and the Green Party at four percent, the poll showed.

Duceppe's comments also came a day after Harper twice refused to rule out resorting to appointing Quebecers to the Senate in order to ensure Quebec is represented in cabinet.

Although Harper had criticized the practice in the past, he used it in 2006 to appoint longtime Conservative bagman Michael Fortier to the Senate in order to have a cabinet minister from the Montreal area.

On Saturday, Duceppe took his campaign to the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges where incumbent Bloc MP Meili Faille is locked in a battle with Fortier, who is running for the House of Commons for the first time since he was named to cabinet.

Like a host of other Conservative candidates across Quebec, Fortier is urging residents of the riding to vote for the Conservatives to ensure that Quebec has a voice at the decision table.

Duceppe, however, said being at the table doesn't count for very much if you can't speak up for Quebec's interests and are forced by your party to vote against them.

"There are ministers in this campaign who are remaining mute," Duceppe said. "They are unable to pronounce themselves during the election campaign. Imagine, if they aren't able to talk to their fellow citizens I imagine that they don't speak too loudly around the cabinet table."

For example, while there is a consensus in Quebec in favor of keeping the Quebec Securities Commission, Quebec Conservative MPs have backed the proposal by the federal government to have a single Toronto-based securities commission for the entire country.

If Quebecers don't choose to elect Conservative MPs -or elect very few -Harper should respect their choice and respect the promise he once made not to resort to naming Quebecers to the Senate to get them into cabinet, he said.

While Duceppe started out the campaign on the defence, touring ridings where Bloc incumbents were being threatened by Conservatives, he is now more often on the offensive.

During two morning stops he sharply criticized Fortier, pointing out the inconsistency of having an unelected cabinet minister complain about how much democratically elected Bloc MPs have cost taxpayers.

Duceppe then took on Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon in the Outaouais riding of Pontiac, accusing him of failing to stand up for Quebec's interests in several areas such as communications and aid to forestry workers.

On Sunday, Duceppe takes his campaign to the Quebec City area where the Conservatives nearly wiped the Bloc off the electoral map in the last election. However, recent public opinion polls show a number of Conservative MPs in the region may now be in trouble.

Dion says economy will slow pace of his platform

aterry — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:27:00 GMT

By Juliet O'Neill and Glenn Johnson
Canwest News Service

Liberal leader Stephane Dion said in an interview with Global Television on Saturday that some of his party's policies could be delayed. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

ORILLIA, Ont. - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Saturday his party's election pledges on child care, doctor training and a national drug insurance plan could be delayed to the third year of his four-year platform because of the economic slowdown.

Dion has been saying on the campaign trail that he would fast-track spending on infrastructure and on government investment in the manufacturing sector, while slowing unspecified pledges.

His comments in an interview with Global Television for the first time identified specific programs that may not happen right away.

A Liberal official said the party's four-year platform did not specify when some programs would begin.

Dion said during a campaign stop in Orillia that all programs would be delivered by the end of the fourth year, as promised.

"If we don't have the room to act the first and second year, we'll do more the third and four year," Dion said during a taping of Focus: Decision 2008.

"The important thing for us, at the fourth year of our plan we have child care, we have more doctors and nurses, we have everything," Dion said.

"So the pace at which we deliver our plan may be changed because of the economic difficulties and because of the fact that Mr. Harper did nothing to prepare the country to the turmoil in which we are."

Dion said while the economic crisis will alter the planned implementation of some of his platform, he promised to deliver the goods.

"Canadians, we will deliver our four-year plan despite the economic mess we will inherit from the Conservatives, "Dion told reporters.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper pounced on the comment.

"Today, Mr. Dion said he may not actually do anything he promised in his platform - not health care, not child care, not anything else for years. But he is going to do the carbon tax now, no matter what," Harper said.

The Liberal war room was quick to react, putting out a release which said: "Despite what Mr. Harper may claim, a new Liberal government would be flexible in the implementation of its platform given the current economic downturn, but will accomplish all of its commitments over a four year mandate."

Then Grit strategists went on the offensive: "In a campaign built on lies - lies about raising the GST; lies about cutting the child benefit; lies about deficits; lies about spending, Mr. Harper has shown he is neither capable nor worthy of being the prime minister of Canada."

Under sunny skies, Dion glad-handed in a farmer's market in Orillia where he urged New Democrats and Greens to go Liberal, so as not to split the non-Conservative vote.

"A protest vote will let the Conservatives win," Dion said at a news conference surrounded by supporters, some of whom wore T-shirts that said "Go Green, Vote Red."

Dion also commented that he hopes Green Leader Elizabeth May will be victorious in her battle in Central Nova.

"We want Elizabeth May in the Commons instead of Peter McKay," Dion said.

But North Simcoe Green candidate Valerie Powell angrily objected to Dion's call for Greens to abandon her and vote Liberal.

"It's insulting," she said.

It's a democracy she said, and she has a right to attract as many votes as possible in a tight three-way race.

Powell said she would tell supporters: "In the middle of this election, with four days to go, vote with your heart, vote for the party which you believe in. After the election, who knows what strategically may happen, especially if Harper gets back in.

"If the Liberals get in, they won't reunite the left . . . they will have power."

She also said May is confusing and upsetting Green members by endorsing Dion for prime minister.

During a whistle stop in Aurora, Ont., retiring MP Belinda Stronach said Dion's decision to tilt upfront spending in the platform to create jobs is necessary because the Conservatives "squandered" the $12 billion surplus they inherited from the Liberals and "circumstances are changing very rapidly."

"We have no choice but to juggle priorities or it's on the back of future generations," Stronach told reporters. "People must have employment, they must have good quality jobs to maintain our quality of life. We need to generate income so we have a good social safety net."

Dion stopped in the riding to boost the campaign of former mayor Tim Jones, the Liberal who hopes to succeed Stronach.

Meantime, the Liberal war room had some fun with a Harper misstep, noting that at a rally in Guelph, Ont., Harper mistakenly referred to the election date as Feb. 14 instead of Oct. 14.

"We don't think that this is a question of language for Mr. Harper since he delivered this early valentine in English," the Liberals said in a tongue-in cheek release.

"We are sure Mr. Harper would like to clarify for Canadians that Election Day is actually Oct. 14, since when you're running a trillion-and-a-half-dollar economy, you don't get a chance to have do-overs.

"Don't worry, Mr. Harper, misspeaking in an election campaign is common. We're sure that no one will question your competence and qualifications to be prime minister just because you got the election date wrong by four months. And may we be the first to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Harper."

The sarcastic note was aimed at needling Harper for his claim two days ago, that difficulty Dion had understanding a question from a CTV reporter showed he was unfit to run a trillion-and-a-half-dollar economy.

Layton targets Montreal in attempt to gain Bloc ground

aterry — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:14:00 GMT

By Ben O'Hara-Byrne and Mark Brennae
Canwest News Service

Layton said Saturday that Canadians should replace the Conservatives with New Democrats. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

MONTREAL -NDP Leader Jack Layton addressed one his most vocal crowds of the campaign here Saturday afternoon when about 700 people packed the popular music venue Club Soda to hear a familiar New Democratic tune: "It's time to turn the page."

Making his fifth visit to Montreal during the election campaign and his second since scoring well in the televised leaders' debates at the beginning of the month, Layton told the crowd it was "unacceptable" that Stephen Harper wasn't getting results for families and for Quebec, and that neither the Tories nor the Liberals can offer a better substitute to the Bloc Quebecois than can his New Democrats.

Layton told the roaring throng that Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe is in a political pickle - "a profound contradiction" he called it - because he, like Liberal leader Stephane Dion, twice voted to support Tory federal budgets "that left ordinary families behind," despite saying his party is the best alternative to the Conservatives in Quebec.

With the crowd chanting "Jack, Jack, Jack," the Montreal-born Layton said "it's time to turn the page in Quebec."

The rally, likely the largest the New Democrats have held in Quebec, took place in the heart of a city in which the NDP desperately wants to win seats.

Early in the campaign, Thomas Mulcair, a party deputy leader, predicted the New Democrats could take up to a dozen seats in Quebec, but a Bloc resurgence and a strong rebound from the Liberals have NDP strategists privately talking about gaining one to three seats, including Mulcair's Outremont riding.

While the New Democrats won two byelections in Quebec, they have never won a seat there in a general election. The party's campaign spending offers evidence NDP backroomers were ever hopeful of putting an end to the dry spell.

The New Democrats spent $1 million on French advertising and visited Quebec on average more than once a week, including five stops in the Gatineau area near Ottawa, and the five visits to Montreal - the first place Layton hit following the leaders' debates Oct. 1-2.

Earlier, Layton took a stroll through Montreal's Atwater Market, where he banged the party drum for Quebecers to side with the New Democrats who, he says, would have more success in the province than the Conservatives.

"Some people are actually beginning to say now, more and more, that we should actually throw Mr. Harper out of office," he said. "We shouldn't just watch him in office, which is what the Bloc has been doing and it's all they're ever going to be able to do," he continued.

"We detect a wonderful rising up of support in Quebec for the New Democrats. It's because New Democrats share the values of so many Quebecers."

What Layton said he doesn't see is an overwhelming drive for Quebec sovereigntists looking to upset the Canadian applecart.

"The debate has been going on for decades and I think more and more people would now prefer, at this moment, to focus on the economy, social justice for those who are struggling in these economic times, the environment and peace."

In response to a French-language reporter's question about the Bloc Quebecois's push for a "Quebec nation" enshrined in the Constitution, Layton said: "It's never over because Quebec's national assembly has never ratified the Constitution and it's something we will have to settle.

"You can't let that situation linger permanently, but our approach is to create winning conditions for Canada in Quebec."

While trying to create winning conditions for his party in that province, Layton was generally well-received by many shoppers and shopkeepers in this, his second visit to the Jeanne-Le Ber riding, which the New Democrats hope to steal from the Bloc since the leaders' televised debates earlier this month.

"Keep saying the truth and you're going to be here for a long time," yelled one butcher.

With files from Glenn Johnson

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