Leaders waste no time taking shots, getting election campaigns started
Posted Mar 26, 2011 11:32:44 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The leaders of our federal political parties won’t be wasting any time before heading out on the campaign trail, and they certainly wasted no time getting the war-of-words started.
Gov. Gen. David Johnston officially dissolved parliament Saturday morning in a historic move that will send Canadians to the polls on May 2 for a spring election.
Harper intends to launch his election campaign in Quebec City today, while Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is holding a pep-rally in Ottawa before continuing on the trail in Montreal Sunday.
Meanwhile, NDP Leader Jack Layton plans to kick off his campaign with a rally at the Chateau Laurier later this morning, before he hops on a plane to Edmonton to campaign on the West Coast.
Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe will be starting his campaign at a boutique hotel in Old Montreal.
Harper wasted no time taking shots at his opposition and promoting his own policies, he warned voters the Liberals intend to form a coalition government.
“On May 2, we will choose between stable national government and a reckless coalition — between a low-tax plan for growth and a high-tax agenda that will stall our recovery, kill jobs and set families back,” Harper said after leaving the residence of Gov. Gen. David Johnston.
Ignatieff referred to the upcoming campaign as “a moment of contrast” between the Harper government and his Liberal party. He warned Canadians the Conservative government had displayed a serious “contempt for the fundamentals of democracy.”
“We will be offering Canadians a government of the people, a government devoted to the people,” Ignatieff said in his statement after the government was dissolved.
He continued to attack the credibility of the Tory government by reminding Canadians why an election was called in the first place.
“The Harper Winter will soon be over,” he said. “For the first time in our history, a prime minister was found guilty by the House of Commons of contempt for our parliamentary institutions and that’s why we’re having an election.”
Harper responded by telling Canadians the Liberals were likely to deny their intent to form a coalition government during the election, then do it afterward regardless.
“Imagine a coalition of arch-centralists and Quebec sovereigntists trying to work together. The only thing they’ll be able to agree on is to spend more money and to raise taxes to pay for it,” rebuked Harper.
That alarmist talk was scoffed at by Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, who noted that Harper was eager in 2004 to replace Paul Martin’s minority Liberals with a Tory government backed by the NDP and Bloc. Harper signed a letter with Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton at the time, asking the Governor General to “consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options” before agreeing to call an election.
“He lied this morning,” Duceppe said of the prime minister.
The rhetoric follows a historic vote in the House of Commons on Friday. MPs voted 156-145 in favour of a Liberal motion expressing non-confidence and citing the Harper government for contempt of Parliament, a first for a national government anywhere in the Commonwealth.
Harper and other Tories defended this week’s federal budget as a responsible plan during a fragile economic recovery and warned about the “irresponsible” effects of an “unnecessary” election. However, the stock market rose Friday and at least one expert dismissed any economic impact.
Don Drummond, chief economist at TD Bank Financial Group and a former top Finance Department official, rattled off many reasons why a federal election poses virtually no threat to the economy.
A government source said as a result of the election campaign, the Prime Minister is likely to miss the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29 in London.
Johnston and Harper had been invited, but Harper is expected to stay in Canada to campaign.
1310News Parliament Hill reporter Cormac MacSweeney is tweeting live from Ottawa as this story develops.
