VANCOUVER — Struggling B.C. Liberal MPs have resurrected their strategy of targeting the soft NDP vote to keep in check the rising Conservative momentum.
The strategy paid off for the Liberals in the last few days of the 2004 campaign when New Democratic Party support shifted, and now that polls show the Conservatives gaining ground, the Liberals have brought back the plan in British Columbia.
In television ads running in the province starting today, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Industry Minister David Emerson, the two senior cabinet ministers from the province, target the so-called soft NDP supporters: those who are more concerned about keeping out the Conservatives than necessarily voting for either the NDP or the Liberals.
Mr. Dosanjh, a former NDP premier, said federal NDP Leader Jack Layton says he could work with a Harper minority government.
But in the ads, Mr. Dosanjh implied that such a situation would mean that NDP voters would have to accept the Conservatives' approach to health care, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the issue of whether Canadian troops should go to Iraq.
"It's very important it be recognized to all the soft NDP voters that at the end of the day you have a choice to make. Either vote for a Harper minority government or you vote for a Paul Martin government," he said yesterday.
While pundits have long said that B.C. could decide the election, B.C. Liberal MPs have not distinguished themselves from the federal Liberal Leader's campaign.
But that changed this week, when Mr. Emerson and Mr. Dosanjh both urged Mr. Martin to reconsider his position on the Chinese head-tax redress issue after mounting criticisms from a significant segment of their voter base and the launch of ads that focus on the cabinet ministers and not Mr. Martin.
Mr. Dosanjh said the Liberals need to earn and re-earn voters' trust.
Some NDP supporters may have bought into the Liberal tactics in 2004. But NDP candidate Libby Davies, who is running in Vancouver East, said that same strategy won't work again.
Ms. Davies, who called Mr. Dosanjh a turncoat, said the Liberals are again using fear tactics and she hopes that voters will see through that plan.
"If people are concerned about Conservatives, and the Liberals are trying to drain NDP votes, I want the people in B.C. to recognize that it will be NDP candidates defeating the Conservatives and not the Liberal candidate," she said yesterday.
Ms. Davies said progressive voters should vote for the party they believe in and remember that the NDP forced the Liberals to change the budget that had previously been approved by the Conservatives in the minority government.
Conservative MP James Moore said that while the Liberals are trying to pick up soft NDP support, he's gaining supporters who voted Liberal last time.
"The Liberals are pushing last-minute ads to stop the erosion of their support, and voters recognize that," said Mr. Moore, the MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.
The Conservatives are not running ads specifically for B.C. voters, but in December they released a B.C. platform to address issues such as criminal justice and democratic reforms, copying an idea that originated with the Liberals in 2004.
The made-in-B.C. platform boosted the Liberal campaign in the province last time with an agenda designed by B.C. caucus members. The Liberals will announce their revamped made-in-B.C. agenda today.
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