Conservative Leader Stephen Harper predicted the Tories will be victorious in Monday's election because of a "tide of change" begun by Paul Martin and demanded by the electorate. He also accused the Liberal Leader of being willing to make any deal to stay in power.
During a speech in Toronto Wednesday, Mr. Harper attacked comments by Mr. Martin Tuesday that he wouldn't rule out staying in office even if his Liberals place second in the election.
On Tuesday, Mr. Martin refused to rule out trying to stay in office even if the Liberals win fewer seats than the Conservatives do. If no party has a majority, the Governor-General is required to ask the sitting prime minister if he can form a government.
But Wednesday, Mr. Martin seemed to close the door to that idea somewhat.He said it's common sense that the party that wins the most seats should form the government.
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"I really don't like to speculate on majority, minority governments . . . our goal right now is to work hard for every single vote that we can get," Mr. Martin said after speaking to the Rotary Club in Edmonton.
"It's a common sense proposition that the party that has the most seats is the party that certainly ought to form a government.
The response appeared to reduce Mr. Martin's options should he end up on the wrong side of a Conservative minority after the June 28 vote.
However, Mr. Harper appeared skeptical that the Liberals would not try to hold onto power.
He said during a press press conference in Toronto Wednesday that he saw Mr. Martin's comments from Tuesday and they were "quite the opposite. He can explain why his statements on this change from one day to the next."
Mr. Harper also said that he intends to get a majority government and won't get involved in deal-making scenarios.
"The bottom line is, I will not be making a deal with the Bloc Quιbιcois or the NDP to stay in power."
He was asked whether, if he won a majority, he would appoint Conservatives from Quebec in order to have good representation of that province in his cabinet.
"I have asked Quebeckers to give me seats in a Conservative government and I think it's the best way, the most effective way, of ensuring of Quebec and Quebeckers are protected."
In a noon-hour speech in Toronto, Mr. Harper said Mr. Martin is involved in deal-making with other parties.
"Already Paul Martin is reaching out for a deal, and already the Bloc [Quιbιcois] and the NDP are suggesting what they might do to get a deal. In Ontario, you know, Ontarians especially, know what happens when politicians will do anything for power," Mr. Harper said, linking the federal party to the provincial Liberals, whose support dropped after last month's budget in which they raised taxes, despite a promise not to do so.
He accused Mr. Martin of being power hungry.
"We start reading that Paul Martin says that he might not give up power even if he won less seats than we did, even if he lost the election. Now we see again the true face of the Liberal Party. They will make any deal, abandon any principle, adopt any policy as long as they can hold onto power."
The NDP's Jack Layton, meanwhile, is already looking at the possibility of a minority government and is starting to lay out his party's conditions for co-operation. He has asked for a central role in government and has promised to protect health care from privatization.
Mr. Martin has refused to say whether he will co-operate with any other parties in a minority situation, but he may need the NDP's support.
In British Columbia on Tuesday, he encouraged NDP supporters to vote Liberal in order to keep Mr. Harper from becoming the next prime minister.
Mr. Harper said during his Toronto speech that Mr. Martin has become too arrogant.
"We will defeat the Liberals in this election because Paul Martin has made a grave error. For the last four weeks he has said this election is about choosing a country, about what he calls his Canada. Paul Martin's error has been to raise the stakes, to demand in fact that Canada needs to change.
"In doing so he has made Canadians from coast-to-coast realize that there must be change. And Canadians are saying it is not Canada that needs to change, it is the government that needs to change," Mr. Harper said at noon at a banquet hall in Toronto Wednesday.
During an early morning television interview, Mr. Harper said the fact that advance poll voter numbers are up over the last federal election is another sign that Canadians want a change in government.
In an interview with Toronto's CP24 news station, he said people are more likely to vote when they are unhappy with the current government.
"It's a consequence of a close election," Mr. Harper said of the extremely tight race between the Liberals and Tories. The most recent poll showed the Tories dipping slightly below the Liberals after holding a small lead for a few weeks.
"People know it's a close election, their vote will count. But my sense is people tend to turn out when they're not happy and they want change."
However, he also acknowledged that a lot of Canadians are still undecided ahead of the June 28 voting day. The race between the Tories and Liberals is so tight that although most experts predict a minority government, no one has been able to predict which party will win it.
Elections Canada reported Tuesday that around 1.2 million people voted in advance polls on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a 60 per cent increase over 2000 figures. And in Ontario, the key battleground of Monday's election with about a third of the country's ridings, advanced poll numbers jumped 92 per cent compared with 2000.
Mr. Harper spent the first day of two-day trek in the vote-rich southern Ontario belt before going west for three days.
