Ah, the negative campaign...

Paul Martin was addressing a rally in Mississauga this afternoon, and the crowd was all fired up with anti-Conservative antagonism. One of the more boisterous fellows shouted something about Stephen Harper. "Boy, you’re good," Martin responded. "You got it."

Martin’s handlers said later that he hadn’t heard what the man, one of several in the audience who yelled out anti-Harper remarks during the speech, had said. The man had called Harper a rather rude name — something along the lines of a female body part. We’re not making this up.

What’s more important than an election?

The birth of a child, that’s what. Conservative wagon-master Dave Penner - the man who keeps the tour running on time - was pulled off the campaign late Wednesday with word his wife had gone into labour.

Penner, who already has one young son, dashed off from the Montreal airport and hurried to an Ottawa hospital for the arrival of the couple’s second child, which wasn’t due until the second week of February.

After a night spent in hospital, the labour abruptly stopped and the couple was sent home. The genial Penner, who also ran the tour in the 2004 campaign, may get the O.K. to rejoin the tour in Ontario tomorrow.

Haven’t I heard this song before?

The Conservative tradition is to sing the national anthem before partisan events and at the party’s weekly caucus, but it also happens to be a tradition that’s expendable when Stephen Harper travels to Quebec.

The party held three rallies in La Belle Province this week, and the song was played at....none of them.

The beady-eyed national press picked up on the difference, and Harper was asked to explain the double-standard at a news conference

“I can’t really answer that question, I’m not the one who plans those events,” he said.

The reporter, TVA’s Lina Dib, also asked the Tory leader why he ends speeches in English Canada with “God bless Canada” but omits the reference in Quebec.

“In Quebec it’s my habit in French to say “a la prochaine” and in English to say “God bless Canada,” I guess I could say “que Dieu bénisse le Canada” but that sounds like a priest, and that’s not my intention, I’m a politician not a priest,” he said.

Pack a lunch before visiting

It is a common belief that meals served at the Queen's Park cafeteria and the diningroom cost next to nothing because they are subsidized by the taxpayer.

Well, think again. It is quite the opposite. If you plan to visit the Pink Palace bring lots of money. Ever since Eurest, a member of Compass Group Canada, took over last summer the prices have skyrocketed.

A simple breakfast costs $7.00, roughly a 100 per cent increase from the previous company, Sodexho, a division of Marriott hotels. An Indian food buffet for one (and don't bother going back for seconds)? Try $25 with tip, and that's just for lunch. You can go down to Queen Street and have all the Indian food you can eat for $8. And for a turkey burger, be prepared to fork over $12.95 before tax and tip, while a tuna salad sandwich sells in the cafeteria for just under $7.00. Oh, almost forgot, they charge 50 cents for hot water.

But that's not the best part, when Eurest took over the Queen's Park operation it cut the employees' wages by at least $1 an hour. So, the company is paying its workers less and charging more. Good deal for them, bad deal for us.

 

 

Snow job

Layton meanwhile found a “silver lining” in the winter storm that walloped eastern Canada on Wednesday - a chance to visit to Saskatoon.

The storm forced Layton to cancel planned visits to New Brunswick and Quebec on Wednesday so tour officials and squeezed in a quick visit to the Saskatchewan city where the party hopes to win seats from the Conservatives.

“As it turns out the runway in New Brunswick was more slippery than a Liberal promise,” Layton said to roars of laughter from the crowd of NDP supporters who attended the impromptu outdoor rally.

“The plane just wasn’t going to be able to land,” he said. Die-hard New Democrats stamped their feet against the Prairie cold as Layton thanked them for coming out to gathering, held outside the airport fence, on “rather short notice.” Unable to visit New Brunswick and Quebec in person, the federal leader prompted chuckles as he related how he rallied supporters in each province -- over the phone lines in a series of conference calls. “We had an enthusiastic back-and-forth with them cheering and me looking at the phone,” Layton said, speaking against a backdrop of election signs stuck in the snow. “Then me looking at the phone and speaking and they are listening and looking at another phone,” Layton said.

Socialist rodeo....

NDP Leader Jack Layton enjoyed one of his rowdiest, foot-stomping, hooting and hollering campaign events so far - in Alberta of all places.

“Be careful now, you are shocking the national press gallery,” Layton told a crowd of more than 400 people who packed an Edmonton community centre Wednesday night.

The strong showing for the NDP comes in a city and province normally known for its strong Conservative ties. But the rally took place in Edmonton Strathcona, where the NDP figures its has its best chance of making inroads with candidate Linda Duncan. Still, it will be an uphill battle to unseat Conservative Rahim Jaffer who held the riding going into the vote.

But that didn’t deter Layton - or the crowd of raucous supporters who literally had the walls and floor shaking with their pounding feet and clapping hands.

“Canada is going to learn that Edmonton is not all Conservative,” Layton said. He said it’s time the Liberals spent were sent to the “penalty box.”

“Should it be two years for misbehaviour? Or five years for interference with good government?”

Family troubles.....

It hasn't been a great week for the Hargrove family. Buzz Hargrove, leader of the Canadian Auto Workers, got himself and Prime Minister Paul Martin in hot water over some intemperate remarks about the Tories and separatism. Hargrove's misstep forced Martin to spend a precious final day of the campaign apologizing for Buzz's remarks.

Meanwhile, at the same time, in Hartland, New Brunswick, an ice jam on the Saint John river was threatening Canada's longest covered bridge -- a heritage landmark.

What's the connection? Well, the mayor of Hartland is none other than Neville Hargrove, Buzz's brother, who would have been dealing with a tourism and economic disaster if the bridge was washed out. Latest word is that the bridge is out of danger. It's less clear that Buzz -- or Martin -- has been similarly spared.

Perhaps this is why they call him a Fiberal: He tells tall tales

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was feeling a bit cocky when he met with reporters Wednesday before the weekly cabinet meeting at Queen’s Park.

In a scrum dominated by questions about whether Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was "scary," McGuinty, who backs Prime Minister Paul Martin in Monday’s election, managed to answer every question without once mentioning Harper by name.

Finally, one exasperated scribe asked: "What’s the main difference between you and Mr. Harper?"

Not missing a beat, the six-foot-two-inch McGuinty shot back: "I’m taller."

Doubting the veracity of this claim, the Toronto Star contacted Harper’s office and found that the Tory leader is ... drum roll please ... six feet two inches tall.

Well, at least the premier and likely new prime minister will see eye to eye...

The Cansfield follies

Energy Minister Donna Cansfield's memory shorted out today.

Cansfield, who has struggled in her first cabinet post, told reporters she would be announcing in a day or two how the public consultation into the province's supply mix was going to work.

Some minutes later her press secretary Erika Botond hurredly called reporters to tell them Cansfield meant one or two weeks. Reporters just shook their heads, having gotten use to Cansfield's missteps.

Before Christmas, the government received a report from the Ontario Power Authority recommending that Ontario renew its aging nuclear fleet, and, despite some waffling by Cansfield to begin with, the government is going to test the public mood on more nuclear by holding public hearings.

A sprint to the finish line

As in 2004, Paul Martin is expected to wrap up his campaign with a cross-country dash in the final hours before the polls open on Jan. 23.

In the last election, he began the final day with a blitz of Nova Scotia, then flew across the country — including brief stops in Gatineau, Que., and Toronto — to finish in Vancouver long after most easterners had gone to bed. Inspired by a journalist on the tour, Martin waded into the water on the Atlantic coast and wound up the day sticking his toe in the Pacific.

The widely noted frantic tour on the last day of the campaign was credited with helping the Liberals pull out a minority government in that election. So Martin was planning all along to repeat that tactic and it is all the more certain now since the Liberals are still clinging to the belief that they can yet turn this campaign around in the 11th hour.