Canadian Federal Election: PLAY!

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Prime Minister Sibboleth launched his campaign this morning with a rally in western Toronto, during which he strongly criticised the record of his Liberal predecessors (Chrétien and Martin) and promised to campaign for a "fairer, more equal Canada".
He then spent several hours touring ridings in the Toronto metropolitan area, including Toronto-Danforth and Oshawa.

Tomorrow, Prime Minister Sibboleth will deliever a speech in Hamilton, Ontario in which he is expected to call for more powers for unions, while announcing measures aimed at propping up the ailing steel industry. Mr Sibboleth will attend another event on that day as well, although details and the location have not been told to the media.

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Part of a press conference, Oshawa:

...you know, I don't really care what the New Yuppycratic Party thinks about me or how I've changed the Liberals, but I do take offense to the assertion that I agreed with the Tory economic policies recent Liberal governments inflicted on Canada, Paul Martin still hasn't endorsed me or the Liberal party in general by the way, while the idea that I, a union member of several decades and a former paid union official... am somehow "anti-union" is absurd, paranoid and demonstrates, once again, quite how out of touch the NDP is with ordinary working people... I mean they are basically a environmentalist party these days...

Yes, I realise that convincing people that the Liberal Party has changed is going to be hard. But, for the sake of ordinary people, it's got to be done. The NDP are not the alternative to the Liberals, the Tories are. We all know that. Apparently the NDP don't.

...any more questions?

...no, no... I don't actually care what the Greenies think...

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At an even in Hamilton, Prime Minister Sibboleth announced that, if the Liberals win the election, the troubled steel industry will be propped up by government subsidies. He also announced that if elected he will introduce something that he calls the "Worker Freedom Bill", which will make it easier for workers to organise themselves into Unions, will ban the use of strikebreakers and will make Unions themselves more democratic. Mr Sibboleth then made a tour of Hamilton area ridings.

Later he flew to Sydney, NS where he unveiled a package of measures designed to boost the struggling economy of Atlantic Canada. Mr Sibboleth said that the federal government has been "inherently, shamefully and utterly biased against our nation's poorest region for too long" and promised that, if elected, he would make sure that a "fair share" of federal money would flow to the Atlantic provinces. He made a point of claiming that Quebec recieves "more than it deserves" from the federal government.
Mr Sibboleth also pledged to "actually do something about the Sydney Tar Ponds" and to reverse earlier reforms and cuts to Employment Insurance.

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(OOC: How exactly are you working out the poll numbers?)

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Speech by Prime Minister Sibboleth in Montreal:

Bearing in mind the sad tendency of many in the NDP these days to support the enemies of the state of Israel, I was suprised that M. Ducasse had the nerve to attempt to  target the votes of the Jewish community in such a shameless and cynical way.
Suprise turned to outrage when I was told of the language that he used during his little speech; that someone from rural Quebec, an area with a disgraceful history of supporting anti-semites, fascists and francophone supremist bigots of all kinds, should be so crass as to talk of "Jewish Stereotypes" shows an appalling, almost thoughtless, lack of sensitivity... and while he is clearly not an anti-semite this is something I would have expected from a Bloqhead, not the leader of the NDP.

And while I have no problem with M. Ducasse chasing votes, he is a politician after all. We do these things, I have a huge problem with politicians of all parties targetting religious or ethnic groups as if they were monolithic... especially when this treatment is based on out-of-date and offensive stereotypes... not every Jew is a small businessman obsessed with money, M. Ducasse, and it is wrong, fundamentally and utterly wrong, of you to say that as you seek their votes.

And to Mr Arage I say this; which party is Brian Mulroney a supporter of? Which party is Mike Harris a supporter of? Your party, sir.
Your party does not have a monopoly on honesty or good governance, sir.

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Part of a radio interview:

Funny that M. Ducasse's response to my speech is to continue with the sort of attitudes of his that I attacked... anyway... a message to him; I do not think that I or the Liberal Party "own" the votes of anyone and I've never claimed so during this campaign.
Please don't claim things that aren't actually true. Thanks.

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Speech in Regina:

I come here today to talk about a subject that is, I think, of interest to most people here.
That subject is the future of healthcare.

If a progressive Liberal government is elected this year then it will introduce major reforms, radical reforms. Reforms that will change the face of healthcare in Canada.

Now... I know what you're all thinking. Whenever a politician mentions "healthcare" and "reform" in the same sentence it's usually a euphamism for "further privatisation and cuts".

But not in this case; actually the best thing to do if we want to improve our healthcare system, and let's be honest here, it has problems. Sure, it's better than what they have south of the border, but what sort of a standard is that to measures ourselves against?, is to actually reduce the level of private sector involvement in healthcare and to change what we have from a public-private system to a fully public setup. There's a very, very simple reason for this; cost. A lot of money would be saved if private sector involvement in healthcare were to be reduced; and that's money that could be invested in our hospitals to improve service and to cut down on waiting lists. Just about everyone would benefit and it wouldn't cost us, cost you, anymore money than at present.

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...during a campaign stop in Vancouver, Prime Minister Sibboleth vowed to either "destroy or fundamentally reform the regressive GST". He also mentioned that if elected he would be "the first Liberal Prime Minister in History to give a fair deal to the West" and hinted that this might come at the expense of Quebec.

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Bit from a radio interview:

"...you know if Mr Arage had actually bothered to read the policy document we published along with my GST speech, he would note that we don't actually propose destroying GST in one go... the realities of government finance makes that unrealistic. Instead we will reduce and reform it away to nothing. But it is nice to note that the party of Mulroney accepts that GST was a mistake."

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During a campaign stop in Halifax, Prime Minister Sibboleth promised that, if elected, he will introduce a new set of enforcable ethics guidelines for M.P's and restrictions on Prime Ministerial patronage.