CityVote Day 7: Party leaders recycle promises on health, family, and worker care

It’s recycling day on the federal election trail.

All three of the main national party leaders trotted out campaign blue boxes today chock full of well-worn promises.

Stephen Harper was first out the door, reannouncing initiatives from last week’s budget to protect jobs and help laid-off older workers.

The Conservative leader told supporters in Dieppe, N.B., that he would extend six initiatives under the “Here for Workers” plan, including a job-sharing program aimed at reducing or preventing layoffs.

The plan would also continue a scheme to help older workers in hard-hit communities, extend employment-insurance pilot programs, and eliminate mandatory retirement for workers in federally regulated workplaces.

Harper heads later today later to Prince Edward Island where the Tories broke a long drought in the last election, winning one of four seats from the Liberals.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is in London, Ont., building on a series of announcements on social issues, including pensions, education and child care.

This time it’s a $1-billion Family Care Plan he’s been pushing that would let people take time off from work to care for seriously ill or aging relatives, and provide help with the cost of caregiving.

It includes a six-month Family Care Employment Insurance Benefit, similar to the EI parental leave benefit, and a new tax benefit of up to $1,350 a year.

“Canadian families want to shoulder the responsibility of caring for their loved ones, but they also deserve a government that stands with them,” said Ignatieff.

Jack Layton is in Sudbury, Ont., where he hopes health care will be a trump card. Layton said an NDP government would invest $165 million to train and recruit 1,200 doctors and 6,000 nurses over the next 10 years.

He also wants to repatriate 300 Canadian doctors who are living abroad, as recommended by the Canadian Medical Association. And he would forgive student loans for health professionals, and streamline recognition of foreign credentials so trained nurses and doctors from other countries are able to work in Canada.

Layton is also facing questions about his stand on the gun registry. His MPs in Northern Ontario initially sided with the Conservatives to get rid of the registry, then did an about-face.