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CALGARY — Jack Layton travelled to Stephen Harper's home turf Sunday to tell Canadians the Conservative Leader has failed them in the nation's top job and does not deserve to be re-elected.
“Folks here in Alberta know better than anyone in Canada that Stephen Harper is leading us in the wrong direction,” Mr. Layton told a partisan crowd at a community centre in Mr. Harper's riding of Calgary Southwest.
“He is failing to protect jobs in hard-hit industries. He has broken his commitment to shorten health care waiting times. He has failed to get pollution under control.”
It has been years since the NDP held a seat in Alberta. And, even though New Democrats are boldly predicting a breakthrough in this province, similar to Thomas Mulcair's by-election win in Quebec last year, any breach of the Tory fortress is unlikely to come in Calgary – or in this constituency in particular.
NDP Leader Jack Layton addresses supporters as he starts his election campaign at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que. on Sunday. (ANDREW VAUGHAN/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
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But that reality did nothing to blunt Mr. Layton's attack.
“Unlike Stephen Harper, I will not continue to hand over billions in corporate tax cuts to companies who ship our jobs overseas,” he told the crowd.
“And unlike Stephen Harper, as Prime Minister, I won't stand idly by and wait when tainted meat or any public health emergency threatens your families' health.”
The NDP Leader took several jabs at the oil industry that is the lifeblood of the Calgary economy – a strategy for which he made no apologies.
“Calgary is one of the leaders when it comes to wind power,” he told reporters during a late-afternoon scrum.
“Why don't we have a federal government that is supporting that kind of thing instead of continually giving subsidies to Exxon that doesn't need them?”
As in a speech he delivered in Hull, across the river from the Parliament buildings, to open the campaign Sunday morning, Mr. Layton asked Canadians to choose change. In his first address, he drew parallels between his own campaign and the presidential battle that is unfolding in the United States.
“Winds of change are blowing south of the border and many Canadians are catching that sense of optimism for a better North America – and indeed a better world,” he told about 100 supporters who gathered with reporters on the grounds behind the Museum of Civilization.
The indirect comparisons Mr. Layton made between his bid for the prime minister's job and Barack Obama's bid for the presidency prompted Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion to say yesterday that the NDP Leader is no Obama.
“He said my name is Jack Layton,” said Mr. Layton. “I guess he's right about that. That's a good start. My basic proposition is that things in Ottawa have been run badly for a lot of working families, not just for the past 25 months. It's been going on for 25 years and we think it's the opportunity now for a really significant change.”
When Parliament was in session, the New Democrats spent as much time attacking the Liberals as they did the Conservatives. If they are to increase their seat count from the 30 they held at the campaign's outset, they must win over disaffected Liberal voters – and convince their own supporters not to vote for Mr. Dion merely to stave off a Harper majority.
But, for the most part, Mr. Layton's focus Sunday was squarely on Mr. Harper and his Conservatives.
“Harper's vision is not the vision of real change you and your family deserve,” he said in Calgary. “It's not the vision that will build a fair and prosperous Canada for our families and children.”
The first day of the election campaign was disrupted by the news that another Canadian soldier, Sgt. Prescott Shipway, had been killed in Afghanistan.
The New Democrats oppose the decision to extend the mission to 2011.
“I think a lot of Canadians have questions about this mission,” said Mr. Layton. “We certainly have a very clear position on it. I have always been reluctant to get into a debate about it on a day when we've learned about a fatality but certainly there is no question that an election will serve as an opportunity for Canadians to reflect on the approach we have been taking on foreign policy.”
