Targeting the youth vote

At a town hall meeting today in Victoria, an 11-year-old boy named Ben asked NDP Leader Jack Layton if he was prepared to change laws to allow children to vote.

Clearly charmed by Ben bravely standing up before an audience of 400 people and a throng of journalists, Layton didn't miss a beat.

"We're a party that's in favour in lowering the voting age," he said.

"So far, we were only going down to 16, but we might revise that."

-Robert Benzie

Poor choice of words?

For a moment there, it looked like Liberal Leader Stephane Dion had casually rewritten party policy on the controversial topic of abortion.

Asked about his party's stand on the issue today, Dion declared, "I am pro-life. I am for the right of women to choose."

An aide quickly clarified that Dion meant to say he was "pro-choice."

- Bruce Campion-Smith

Stumped

NDP Leader Jack Layton is stumped about whether he’s ever delivered a stump speech while actually standing on a stump.

“This is like Rick Mercer asking me if I ever wore spandex riding my bike and I said no — and that was true!” Layton said today in Kamloops, B.C.

“I don’t remember if I’ve ever stood on a stump. My sister (Nancy) is here. She’ll probably remember whether I used to hold forth on a stump back in Hudson,” he said of his pastoral Quebec childhood.

“I honestly can’t remember, but I wouldn’t want to say it’s never happened because it might have.”

Still, Layton insisted — in a claim met with skepticism by bleary-eyed reporters travelling with him on his breakneck cross-Canada tour — that he never forgets where in the country he is during a stump speech.

“I don’t believe so.”

Journalists, on the other hand, are always asking one another — and Layton’s aides — where the hell they are.

-Robert Benzie

 

Questions linger about former Tory candidate

In Halifax, federal cash has gone missing and questions of are being asked of a handpicked Conservative candidate who stepped down after it was revealed she had a criminal record.

Just about three months ago the federal government gave All Women's Empowerment and Development Association (AWEDA) of Halifax almost $143,000. Nova Scotia cabinet minister Peter MacKay even delivered the cheque himself. Now the agency says it has to close its doors temporarily because it has almost run out of money.

Many people in the Atlantic province are watching this one very closely since the now suspended executive director Rosamand Luke was for a brief time the Conservative candidate for the riding of Halifax. In July 2006, Luke was convicted of uttering threats and sentenced to 18 months probation. She was also convicted of breaching an undertaking in June 2007.

The two remaining AWEDA board members say about $84,000 was paid to Luke without proper documentation. Among the other things, the board is curious about a cheque for about $2,200  Luke wrote to a company where her daughter works. Another $1,500 cheque was for expenses related to MacKay’s announcement in June of the $142,700 grant.

In what may be a classic understatement, MacKay told the Halifax Chrionicle-Herald, "it's a concern."

-Richard Brennan

Where's the exit?

A Canadian Press photographer was baffled when, waiting for a Stephen Harper campaign event to begin in Vancouver, he saw one of Harper's workers taping over an "EXIT" sign in the hotel where the event was to take place.

Everyone knows Harper and his team run an extremely controlled operation where nothing is left to chance.

But no one knew they were going so far as to cover over hotel "EXIT" signs to avoid the possibility of someone getting a photo of the incumbent prime minister with a metaphorical suggestion in the background that he's on the way out.

Dion blasts PM for date of election

Stephen Harper’s decision to call the federal election on a Jewish religious holiday will leave many Jews unable to exercise their democratic rights, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says.

Dion used a visit to a Jewish community centre in Winnipeg to condemn the prime minister’s choice of Oct. 14 – the first day of the festival of Sukkot - for the national vote.

“I believe holding the election on this day violates the right of many Jewish Canadians to equal participation in the electoral process,” Dion told a crowd of students at the Asper Jewish community centre.

“This did not have to happen,” Dion said, noting that Harper’s election call flies in the face of the Conservatives’ own legislation which set October 2009 as the date of the next vote.

The Conservatives have defended their choice of election day, saying that Jewish voters can respect the holiday by casting their ballots at advance polls.

But Dion said that response deprives them of the chance to take in developments in the final weeks and days of the election that could sway their choice.

“Jewish voters have the same right as other Canadians to take into account the last week of an election campaign,” he said to applause.

And he noted that many Jews will not be able to work as campaign volunteers or at Elections Canada.

“Many Jews will not be able to participate as fully as they would like to on election day,” he said.

- From Bruce Campion-Smith

Sounding off on arts cuts

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe continued to attack the Conservatives' cuts to arts and culture today in a speech to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.

The cuts have become an important issue in Quebec, if only because the province's artists have been increasingly vocal about them. A major concert and protest took place last night in Montreal, attended by Duceppe and NDP leader Jack Layton, who promised to reverse the $45 million in program cuts.

In his speech, Duceppe told the business leaders arts and culture generated $1.4 billion for Montreal's economy alone.

Then he had a bit of fun. He reminded the audience of California governor and former Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's criticism of Ottawa and Washington for inaction on the environment.

"We're sending a strong message to our federal governments that states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal action," Schwarzenegger said yesterday  during an announcement of a regional market among 11 provinces and states to trade carbon emissions and lower greenhouse gases.

But for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, "Schwarzenegger isn't credible," Duceppe said.

"He's an artist!"

- Andrew Chung

No sign of Goldilocks — or the third bear

Sure, the sign at the Travelodge in Kenora said "bear sightings in parking lot," but who pays attention to signs?

Not intrepid Radio-Canada reporter Daniel Thibeault, travelling with NDP Leader Jack Layton's campaign.

Early this morning, Thibeault decided to get some fresh air and have a cigarette after the tour reached this northern outpost.

But he came face to face with a large furry parking lot dweller.

"Oh my God, there's a bear," exclaimed the TV reporter.

Thibeault then spotted another bear lurking in the dark.

Coolly finishing his cigarette, he went back inside, giving his friends a blog item for their election notebooks.

"It's just a bear," he said.

Survey finds Bigfoot more credible than politicians

More Canadians believe that Bigfoot exists than believe politicians' promises at election time. So says a survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted by Praxicus Public Strategies Inc. for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The respondent were asked: "Which is more likely to happen... Politicians will keep their election promises or scientists will prove the existence of Bigfoot?"

According to the results, 58 per cent said Bigfoot, 27 per cent opted for promises while 15 per cent were undecided. The results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

"You know Canadians are cynical about politicians' promises when twice as many of them would bet on the existence of a mythical creature like Bigfoot," stated CTF acting national director Adam Taylor. "But who can blame them? Politicians always promise the moon and the stars during an election. Some even promise they can cut taxes and dramatically increase spending, all while maintaining a balanced budget."

The survey was done to bolster the federation's position that there should be balanced budget legislation.

- Richard Brennan

Tories keep Dona Cadman under wraps

Among the Conservatives lined up proudly behind Conservative leader Stephen Harper at a rally in Surrey, B.C., was Dona Cadman, who is running for the Tories in the riding of Surrey-North.

Reporters traveling with the Harper campaign were keen to talk with Cadman. She's the wife of the late independent MP Chuck Cadman, and is at the centre of the controversy over whether, before his death, the Conservatives might have offered him a life insurance policy in exchange for his crucial support in Parliament.

But Cadman and other Conservatives were hustled off the stage after the rally and pursuing reporters were blocked by the RCMP, who were there to provide security for the exiting Harper.

Asked by reporters why the Tories went to  such great lengths to keep Dona Cadman under wraps, a Harper spokesperson said, "Local candidates' priority is in the local ridings and not talking to the national media."

-Les Whittington