Canada: Leaders Launch Election Campaigns

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The race to see who will get the opportunity to serve the Canadian people from Ottawa is underway. Yesterday, the party leaders launched their campaigns.

This is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first campaign as Prime Minister and this means he has a track record that voters can assess.

"Canadians will choose between this government's proven record and clear direction or an opposition whose increasingly strident criticism attempts to mask unclear and risky agendas," he said.

The PM highlighted the party's tax cuts in his speech; Harper also said the Bloc Québécois (BQ) was not a player. Quebecers will have to choose between the Conservatives and the Liberals, he said. "The Bloc will always be in opposition and will always come to Quebecers empty-handed."

The provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia are three provinces where the Conservatives hope to win enough new seats to give them a majority.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion went on the attack and rejected the idea the Liberal party is a risky choice.

Dion rejected Conservative ads characterizing him as a tax-and-spend politician: Harper "will spend millions more to distort reality and attack my character. Well, that's a complete fabrication. That's not me."

The Liberal English ads focus on the party's environmental policy, while the French ads will emphasize cuts to arts funding, alleged Conservative international missteps and the economy.

A third or more of the Liberal party's candidates will be women.

NDP Leader Jack Layton would like Harper's job.

"My friends, today Stephen Harper announced he's quitting as prime minister and so today I'm applying for his job," Layton said..

This tactic of presenting itself as a potential government is a new and in the past to hold the balance of power in Parliament and push other parties in its direction.

Layton promised to stop what he called "ripoffs" by big oil, cellphone and banks.

The environment is the Green party's major plank and Leader Elizabeth May is counting on Canadians to care enough about the environment to vote for her party.

"You will choose whether we have a future that is green and healthy and secure or whether we go the wrong way."

May has a problem though she may not be included in the TV leaders debates.

"There really isn't any more important threshold for us in this election initially to have a fair chance than to have the media consortium accept that the Green Party of Canada has a place at that podium," she said.

BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe says that the BQ are the only party that can prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority. Duceppe has compared Harper to U.S. President George W. Bush, and stated the government is incompetent.