On the first day of an election campaign that opposition parties say is unnecessary, a feisty Prime Minister Jean Chrétien challenged Canadians to choose between "two very different visions of Canada."
Under a brilliant autumn sun, Mr. Chrétien walked across Sussex Drive yesterday and up the long driveway of Rideau Hall to visit Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and call a federal election for Nov. 27 -- the third in seven years.
Moments later, with his wife Aline standing at his side, Mr. Chrétien held a brief opening news conference. He said Canadians will face a stark choice in the election between the Liberal Party and the Canadian Alliance.
"This election offers two very different visions of Canada, two crystal clear alternatives," he said. Mr. Chrétien made no mention of the other three major parties contesting the election.
He defended his decision to call an election less than 3½ years into his second mandate, arguing the Canadian Alliance had launched its election advertising. Canadians do not want a seemingly endless, "American-style" campaign, Mr. Chrétien said.
When a reporter suggested that the reason for calling the election is the Liberal Party's big lead in the opinion polls, Mr. Chrétien shot back: "It's very important for Canadians, in my judgment, that we win. You know, I'm not going to go to the people and say to them, I'd like somebody else to win. So of course, I'm calling an election hoping to win."
Mr. Chrétien's staff staged the news conference carefully, moving the podium from its usual rather formal setting at the front door of the Governor-General's residence. Instead, Mr. Chrétien spoke to reporters on the grounds of Rideau Hall, where he was framed for the cameras by the autumnal splendour of the red and yellow maple leaves.
Later, Mr. Chrétien held two rallies with party supporters -- one in Ottawa and the other in his hometown of Shawinigan, Que. -- where he portrayed the election as a contest between the Alliance on the right and the Liberal Party on the centre-left.
"It's only the market forces" that the Alliance cares about, Mr. Chrétien told a crowd in Ottawa. The Liberals, he said, favour programs for the arts, regional economic development and foreign aid.
His nomination meeting in Shawinigan was held at the Auberge des Gouverneurs, which attracted $600,000 in loans from Human Resources Development Canada, the besieged federal department.
The loans to the hotel, cited last week by Auditor-General Denis Desautels as an example of the government's waste and mismanagement, were announced by former human resources minister Pierre Pettigrew before a loan application had been received.
Yesterday, in front of more than 800 cheering supporters, a fiery Mr. Chrétien defended the loans program, saying such regional development programs were critical to rural communities.
Not surprisingly, the opposition leaders derided yesterday's election call as a cynical political exercise to take advantage of the Liberals' strong standing in the polls and to protect Mr. Chrétien's leadership of the Liberal Party, which was challenged by supporters of Finance Minister Paul Martin this year.
Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark said: "He's doing it for reasons of vanity, he's doing it for reasons of party advantage."
New Democratic Party Leader Alexa McDonough described the election call as "extremely arrogant."
Last night in Toronto, she joined about 200 civic activists celebrating the defeat of a plan to ship the city's garbage to an abandoned mine in Northern Ontario.
She said it was great to start the election campaign at a "victory party."
Ms. McDonough promised to make the environment a major issue in the federal campaign.
The Leader of the Canadian Alliance, Stockwell Day, does not make political appearances on Sunday. But the party's campaign co-chairman, Peter White, said that Mr. Chrétien had "cynically decided to exploit" a political opportunity.
Mr. Chrétien's rejoinder was to say that the Alliance has been campaigning non-stop since Mr. Day was elected leader in July.
The Alliance launched its platform three weeks ago and began a $2.1-million election-style ad campaign a week later.
Liberal strategists clearly believe the key to the party's success will be to lock on to the Alliance as the sole target (outside Quebec, at least) and ignore the other parties.
Mr. Chrétien's government brought down a mini-budget last week that included what the Liberals said was the largest package of tax cuts in Canadian history. It was clearly intended to undercut the Alliance's appeal to small-c conservative voters. However, it was obvious yesterday that Mr. Chrétien's rhetorical approach in this election will be to emphasize the contrasts between the two parties.
At the Ottawa rally yesterday afternoon, Mr. Chrétien said that Mr. Day and the Alliance had voted against the Liberals' mini-budget because the document didn't offer enough tax breaks for the rich. "Millionaires can look after themselves," he said, receiving cheers from the partisan crowd.
He accused Mr. Day of wanting to gut the influence of the federal government. Mr. Day had encouraged the premiers not to sign a recent health-care pact, he said, promising that an Alliance government would give them just as much money but without conditions.
Under the Alliance, Mr. Chrétien said, Canadians would get a health-care system like that of the United States, where the private sector plays the dominant role and a fifth of the population is uninsured.
At Shawinigan, Mr. Chrétien, first elected there in 1963, provided a spirited attack on the Bloc Québécois and the Alliance. He said the Bloc had vowed in 1993 that its members would remain in Ottawa for only one mandate, but are still around seven years later, despite the waning popularity of the separatist option in Quebec.
"The Bloc Québécois has lost its raison d'être," he said, adding that Quebeckers want to talk about the economy and health care, not the Constitution and referendums.
The Prime Minister also attacked the Alliance's proposed single-rate tax, which he says will favour the rich.
"We're cutting taxes for the middle-class and the lower-class; I know that the rich will take care of themselves," Mr. Chrétien said.
He introduced about 50 Quebec MPs and candidates including Mr. Martin, whom he called "my good friend."