NDP Leader Jack Layton waves as he boards his plane after a campaign stop in Vancouver on Saturday. (Andrew Vaughan/CP)
With polls showing the Liberals and Conservative at a statistical tie, the leaders are urging their supporters to get out to vote.
Tory Leader Stephen Harper will be touring Alberta and will end up Monday in his Calgary home riding.
NDP Leader Jack Layton begins his day in Saskatoon and after a stop in Thunder Bay, he'll settle in Toronto for election night.
Liberal Leader Paul Martin has an ambitious plan Sunday to fly coast-to-coast in a last-gasp rush to drum up votes. He'll visit Halifax, Gatineau, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe will hit Longueuil, Que., Saint-Lambert and La Prairie before going to his home riding of Laurier.
The last five weeks produced one of the most bitter, negative and personal campaigns, filled with attack ads, negative press releases.
It is also the closest campaign in recent memory, with the Conservatives and Liberals in a dead heat as voters head to the polls. It has also left experts scratching their heads over what the political landscape will look like on the morning of June 29.
The Liberals have a tough battle in Quebec against a surging Bloc. The Tories and NDP have their eyes set on seat-rich Ontario, a province that handed the Liberals their past victories. And British Columbia may have the final say when the night's over.
On Saturday, Mr. Martin said he'll campaign to the last minute, saying he "could not live with" himself afterward if he did not do everything possible to eke out a win.
|
|
| DECISION 2004 PAGE |
|
STORIES |
|
OPINION/EDITORIAL |
| QUOTABLE "Quite frankly this is a very tight election and I'm not taking anything for granted here. And I could not live with myself if I did not go flat out until the very last minute to essentially earn every vote that we can," Liberal Leader Paul Martin on Saturday. |
| PRESS
RELEASES • Bloc • Conservatives • Liberals • NDP |
|
SCHEDULE
|
|
ON THE
TRAIL
|
|
globeandmail.com
features
• Platforms • Poll tracker • Party standings • History • Toolkit • Profiles • Sights and sounds • Phillips flash cartoons |
|
LINKS |
| PARTIES • Liberals • Conservatives • NDP • Bloc |
| POLLS • Ipsos-Reid • Ekos • Environics • SES |
| YOUR
RIDING Search by riding |
"Quite frankly this is a very tight election and I'm not taking anything for granted here. And I could not live with myself if I did not go flat out until the very last minute to essentially earn every vote that we can," he told reporters in Mississauga, Ont., this morning.
"As far as I'm concerned, the next two days are very, very important in terms of how this election is going to play out, what the final result is going to be. And I could not live with myself in terms of a candidate anywhere in this country and obviously in British Columbia, if I felt that I had not done everything that I possibly could."
Mr. Harper has a light campaigning schedule planned compared to the frenzied pace being kept by other leaders.
"This is just panic when you start pulling up your travel schedule and flying all over the country," he said when asked why he's spending the last crucial days preaching to the converted at scripted rallies.
"The best way to meet voters is to try and get them all in one place, it's not for a national leader to go door-knocking."
In fact, Mr. Harper seemed to suggest Saturday that the campaign is a done deal when he quipped to a TV cameraman: "So, glad it's over?"
Asked later about the inference, Mr. Harper would only say: "There's still 48 hours."
Mr. Layton, meanwhile, on Saturday sharpened his attack on Mr. Martin as he tried to stiffen the resolve of soft New Democrats who might drift to the Liberals in the waning hours of the election campaign.
Mr. Layton blasted Mr. Martin for "some rather sad last-ditch efforts to portray himself as coming from the same roots, the same wellspring as the NDP."
The Bloc Leader blitzed Liberal ridings on Saturday in a final push to win over ethnic voters who traditionally support the Grits.
Mr. Duceppe said the Bloc would do a better job in Ottawa representing the interests of Quebec's ethnic communities.
With the Bloc already poised to win a majority of seats in Quebec, Mr. Duceppe appeared to be making a last-ditch effort to win over Liberal-held ridings on the Island of Montreal where there is a large immigrant population.
With files from Campbell Clark
