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Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper waves as he boards his campaign plane with his wife Laureen in Ottawa April 3, 2011. Canadians will head to the polls in a federal election May 2.Chris Wattie/Reuters

CONSERVATIVES

The challenge facing Stephen Harper as he tries for a majority government is to strengthen his lead and prevent left-of-centre votes from flocking to rival Michael Ignatieff as part of a strategic effort to stop a Conservative majority.

Mr. Harper begins Monday, April 4, in the Niagara riding of Welland, where the Tories are hoping to knock off NDP incumbent Malcolm Allen and add one more seat towards the 11 additional ones they need for control of the Commons

Mr. Allen is one of the New Democrat MPs who initially backed scrapping the long-gun registry but then changed his mind before a Commons vote that preserved it. The New Democrat only won his seat in 2008 by a few hundred votes and the Conservatives, who came second last time, are hoping to make him pay for switching sides by harnessing rural anger.

The Conservative Leader then heads to Guelph, Ont., where the Tories are trying to unseat Liberal Frank Valeriote, who won his seat in the last ballot by fewer than 1,800 votes with a Tory candidate coming second.

- Steven Chase

LIBERALS

The Ignatieff campaign made a deliberate decision to hit major media markets - Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver - in the first week of the campaign. They wanted to show strength through crowds and introduce leader Michael Ignatieff to Canadians. He is the only one of the five leaders who has not run a national campaign.

So this week Mr. Ignatieff is in the Atlantic - Halifax and then Newfoundland and Labrador Monday, which is shaping up as a fierce battleground.

Conservative Leader Mr. Harper announced loan guarantees for the Lower Churchill hydro project when he was campaigning in the province last week. It was a kiss-and-make-up gesture after losing seats in the 2008 election because of an anything-but-Conservative campaign launched by former premier Danny Williams.

Mr. Ignatieff wants to hold on to his six seats in that province. So what he says about the Lower Churchill will be crucial. - Jane Taber

NDP

The challenge faced by Jack Layton's New Democrats is to convince left-leaning voters that the NDP candidates can beat Conservatives. Mr. Layton needs to prevent a migration of votes from his party to the Liberals, and to the Bloc in Quebec, as Canadians who fear a Conservative majority start to think strategically.

The NDP Leader will hold a rally on Monday night in the riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London, where his former candidate, Ryan Dolby, quit last week to support the Liberals - and said as he left that he felt the move was the only was to defeat the riding's Conservative incumbent. Mr. Layton and his supporters will cheer on their new candidate, Fred Sinclair, who was nominated the day after Mr. Dolby's defection.

In doing so, Mr. Layton will be sending the message that this campaign has not become a two-party race. Gloria Galloway

BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS

The Bloc Québécois will be trying to take back three seats from the Conservative Party - and protect its current rural ridings - as Leader Gilles Duceppe travels to eastern and northern Quebec this week.

The Bloc campaign will follow the St. Lawrence River, where it will try to reclaim a seat that was lost in a by-election last year, all the way to Gaspésie, and then up to the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, where two Conservative ministers are well-entrenched.

The Bloc will be calling for more federal help for industries such as forestry and fisheries as a way to fight against the rural exodus. In addition, Mr. Duceppe will continue to attack the Conservatives on national issues, such as a loan guarantee for a hydro-electrical development in Newfoundland that is being widely denounced in Quebec.

Overall, the Bloc is trying to convince Quebeckers in faraway regions that they are better off with a vocal MP in opposition than with a Conservative MP who toes the government line. - Daniel Leblanc

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