CityVote Day 29: Layton targets Duceppe’s riding after campaigning in Toronto

The NDP is flexing some new found organizational muscle in an unlikely place — a jubilant rally with over 1,000 New Democrats in the Montreal riding of Gilles Duceppe.

Jack Layton is basking in an orange-themed love-in in the bluest of places: a downtown riding held for two decades by the leader of the Bloc Quebecois.

The NDP was once a fifth-place fringe party in the riding, finishing behind the Greens and even the Marijuana party in 2000, but now boasts a significant presence after making gains in four straight elections.

“Thank you for this welcome in the town where I was born,” a beaming Layton told the crowd.

“Something is going on in Quebec — a wind of change, change that you can feel blowing all along the St. Lawrence River.”

Facing the prospect of a bulked-up NDP, the other parties are pushing back with increasing vehemence.

Other opposition parties are warning that an NDP rise will lead to a majority government for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, thanks to vote-splitting on the left.

There are also warnings that the NDP platform is a fiscal fairy tale. That the party is making promises, willy-nilly, in some regions that would surprise voters in other regions.

But the NDP’s newfound strength proved jarring enough for Duceppe to make a strident, emotional appeal to his base: “This election is a battle between… Canada and Quebec,” said a message Saturday from Duceppe’s Twitter account.

He later erased that note and replaced it with a more toned-down appeal for all sovereigntists to back his party. That message is a departure from previous campaigns, where Duceppe worked to broaden his appeal among non-sovereigntist voters.

“This election is not a left-right battle, but a battle between federalists and sovereigntists,” said the later message from Duceppe’s account. “Between the parties of the Canadian majority and Quebec.”

There are even anti-NDP attack ads, including a new one from the Liberals featuring a yellow traffic light and the message, “Not so fast, Jack.”

The Liberals are pointing out a series of alleged exaggerations in the NDP platform, saying the promises are based on invented revenues like a supposed $3.6 billion that would come in the first year of a climate cap-and-trade system. The Liberals call it, “fantasy money.”

“It’s time to take a close look at what Jack Layton’s saying to the Canadian people. The numbers add up and up and up,” Ignatieff said.

“Mr. Layton has got a platform that when you look at it closely has . . . $30 billion of spending, which we think is not going to be good for the economy and he derives it from sources we just don’t think are credible.

“He’s got a cap-and-trade system that’s going to deliver $3.5 billion in the first year. We don’t even have a cap and trade system. It’s science fiction.”

Layton is also facing more pointed questions about just how much he is promising people — especially Quebec nationalists — in order to gain their support.

He faced a grilling in a CBC radio interview over such things as his promise to let B.C. drop the Harmonized Sales Tax but keep the federal compensation money anyway.

He was also forced to defend the logic of giving Quebec additional seats in the House of Commons, whenever the chamber expands, to ensure it continues to have about one-quarter of the seats in the country.

When asked for examples of how he would create the so-called “winning conditions” for Quebec to sign the Constitution, Layton replied that he would do it by exporting things Quebecers are proud of — like public daycare — to the rest of the country. When the interviewer suggested such a national program was currently unaffordable, Layton replied that it was a priority for Canadians.

Layton is also shrugging off the attacks from the Bloc.

He says he isn’t campaigning in Duceppe’s riding to target him personally, but only because the downtown neighbourhood holds the most suitable venue for a rally.

He did, however, dismiss the notion that this election might be a mini-referendum on Quebec independence.

“I believe Quebecers have seen the same-old, same-old politics going on, year after year in Quebec, and they’re beginning to say, ‘Perhaps we want to be at the leading edge of change,’ ” he told a news conference before arriving in Montreal.

“We’ve offered to Quebecers the same thing we’ve offered to all Canadians: We will look after the issues of health care of your families, we will focus on job-creation, we will work hard to provide economic security for seniors, and we will try to take steps to make life a little more affordable — and people are responding to this in Quebec, very strongly.”

With the election campaign heading into the final stretch, the party leaders are all spending part of the day in the crucial suburban Toronto ridings.

Layton began the day with a news conference for ethnic media in Toronto’s west end.

Harper is also trying to nibble away at Liberal support in the so-called 905 belt around Toronto. He delivered a speech on religious freedom, touting his party’s promise to create an office to monitor persecution abroad.

The Conservative leader illustrated his case by telling the story of his recent encounter with Pakistani cabinet minister Shahbaz Bhatti — just before he was murdered last month.

Harper called the encounter unforgettable. Later in the event, the late cabinet minister’s brother took to the stage to speak at the rally.

But that message was overshadowed by questions about a controversial endorsement that was given to a Conservative candidate in B.C.

Harper supporters, prompted by campaign staffers, drowned out the media by cheering loudly for over a minute as a journalist tried asking a question about an endorsement from Ripudaman Singh Malik — who was acquitted of criminal charges laid in the 1985 Air India bombings.

The party says it would never have knowingly accepted an endorsement from Malik. The cheering crowd made it impossible to ask Harper how, given Malik’s profile in B.C., his local candidate could possibly have been unaware that she was attending an event where Malik gave the endorsement.

The Tory candidate, Wai Young, said she had no warning that Malik would be at the event that was held at a local school and would not have gone had she known.

In raising the issue on Friday, the Liberals questioned Young’s judgement in being at an event with Malik. They pointed out Malik had links to the only man convicted in the bombings.

Evidence entered during Malik’s trial revealed he provided financial assistance to the family of Inderjit Singh Reyat. Reyat pleaded guilty to manslaughter for supplying parts to make the bombs that brought down an Air India jet, killing more than 300 people.

After his event in Mississauga, Ont., Harper was travelling to Campbell River, B.C., for an event late Saturday.

The Greater Toronto Area has been a Liberal bastion since 1993 but in recent years cracks have started to show and many observers believe the Conservatives must pick up some seats to have a chance of forming a majority government.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff began his day campaigning on the East Coast with events in Halifax and Prince Edward Island. A recent poll suggested the NDP was tied with the second-place Liberals in the region, with the Tories still in the lead.

Ignatieff was to end his day by returning to the Toronto area, attending an Easter service at a Mississauga church.

But his biggest appearance of the weekend will occur on a television talk show in Quebec — on Radio-Canada’s “Tout le monde en parle,” on Sunday.

The show is a cultural phenomenon in Quebec, viewed weekly by almost one-third of the province’s voters.

It is perhaps Ignatieff’s last chance to make a big impression — but it also carries risks.

Layton’s popularity in Quebec took off after a successful appearance in one episode, but other politicians have had a far rockier ride on the show. Duceppe has also appeared, while Harper has declined invitations.

Ignatieff is also buying a half-hour of TV airtime Sunday in English Canada.

The prospect of a late campaign surge by the NDP leaves it almost impossible to predict how the standings will look when voters go to the polls just over a week from now.

Vote-splitting has created various seat projections by pollsters and pundits that offer a wild range of potential outcomes.

Some say the Conservatives could to win anything from a smaller minority to an eye-popping 201-seat majority.

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