OTTAWA — Canadian Press Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 08:49PM EDT
Stephen Harper was expected to sight the New Democrats in his campaign crosshairs Wednesday during a tour of British Columbia, where polls suggest the NDP are breathing down Conservative necks and the Liberals have fallen off an electoral cliff.
The apparent resurgence of the NDP has raised in recent days the spectre of an NDP-Liberal coalition government in the event of a slim Tory minority — a prospect Mr. Harper described as a violation of the will of Canadian voters.
The next Parliament would be duty-bound to let the Tories form a government if they get a minority of seats in the Oct. 14 election, said Mr. Harper — a contradiction of sorts from a man who has in the past described the will of the House of Commons as sacrosanct.
Jack Layton — who has mused about co-operating with the Liberals after the election — was in economically troubled northern Ontario early Wednesday before a scheduled return to B.C., where he's sure to have choice words for Mr. Harper.
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who was scheduled to start his day in Winnipeg, has been playing down the notion of a coalition with the NDP, but hasn't ruled it out entirely.
On Tuesday, Mr. Harper cast his lot with “ordinary, working people” and not with “ivory tower” justice experts or with a cultural elite he characterized as government-subsidized whiners.
Conservative cuts to certain arts and culture programs were on centre stage as Mr. Harper made an unapologetic appeal to working-class Canadians.
“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up — I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people,” he said during a campaign stop in Saskatoon.
Mr. Harper's barbed shot at whining elites attending glitzy affairs was curious, given that his wife Laureen is the honorary chair of the National Arts Centre's gala next month in Ottawa.
While some arts programs have been cut, Mr. Harper noted the overall budget of Canadian Heritage has climbed 8 per cent.
Every group can't get everything it wants, he added. “Ordinary people understand we have to live within a budget.”
Those remarks were likely to come under scrutiny again Wednesday as Hollywood North luminaries like Paul Gross, Colm Feore and Gordon Pinsent host a news conference to push arts and culture as a key issue in the federal election campaign.
Both Mr. Dion and Mr. Layton highlighted some $45-million in Tory cuts to programs that help Canadian musicians, authors, painters, sculptors and poets, among others.
The Liberals are promising to increase the film and TV production tax credit to 30 per cent from 25, costing the federal treasury $160-million.
The NDP says it would ensure that prime-time TV shows are written and produced by Canadians and feature Canadian stars. Mr. Layton also promised to restore the Tory arts cuts and to give new tax breaks to artists, writers and performers.
The Conservatives have not released a projected costing of their criminal justice program — nor their full campaign platform — but Mr. Harper said the additional taxpayer burden would be minimal.
The NDP's Joe Comartin has estimated the capital costs required for new prisons alone could approach $1-billion, plus $500-million annually in operating expenses.
And those kind of taxpayer pocketbook issues — rather than crime or culture — appear likely to dominate the latter stages of the election campaign.
Week 3 of the campaign
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