Jack's no turkey

It wasn't a sitdown turkey dinner but it was the next best thing.

NDP Leader Jack Layton served up turkey sandwiches complete with cranberry sauce to the media, Mounties and campaign staff made by his son Mike, his daughter Sarah and her husband Hugh Campbell. The three cooked two turkeys and bought pumpkin pies, all of which was thoroughly enjoyed by all on this Thanksgiving Day.

Layton running up against reality?

Just a sleep deprived slip up or something more telling?

This morning in Oshawa, NDP Leader Jack Layton didn't start off his speech by saying "I'm Jack Layton and I am running to be your prime minister."

The bald-faced statement has been the brunt of many jokes, given that he leads a fourth-place party that rarely gets above 19 per cent on election night. Try as they may, reporters covering the campaign have not been able to shake him off script. Layton has insisted that to say otherwise would be "defeatest" at a time when voters are looking for an alternative to the "same old, same old" parties.

But then it happened at the campaign office for Oshawa NDP candidate Mike Shieds: no mention of being the next prime minister. Stand by for more.

UPDATE: Layton was back on message a few hours later in Etobicoke where he assured the gathered crowd he was running to be prime minister.

Flexing some muscle

There is always time for exercise, even during an election campaign. During his rust belt tour today NDP Leader Jack Layton pulled over near London, Ont. to make time for reporters to file their stories and for him to hit the gym. A good workout is good for body and soul, they say.

- Richard Brennan

Layton finally sits at kitchen table

Finally, NDP Leader Jack Layton has sat at a kitchen table. Of all places it was on the tarmac at Montreal airport. Media members arranged for a kitchen table and four chairs to be set up near the stairs leading to the campaign plane as Layton arrived for the next leg of his journey to Windsor. The figurative kitchen table has been a major part of his campaign to illustrate his interests are that of ordinary Canadians not of the CEOs at the boardroom table.

The kitchen table came complete with tablecloth signed by the media types covering the campaign. Layton loved it - sitting at the table having his photo taken. He kept the tablecloth as a keepsake.

- Richard Brennan

Sports and tax dollars do mix, Layton says

NDP Leader Jack Layton is all revved up.

Layton said it's time Ottawa fuelled the Montreal Grand Prix with taxpaper dollars.

"Yes, of course, Its a very important event, not only for race fans but also for Montreal's economy," he told Montreal's TVA.

But that's not all. He said those same tax dollars should be used to bail out sports teams.

"Obviously we would join with the city and the province to help because the benefits are very important for the local economy."

- Richard Brennan

Practice makes perfect

There is nothing spontaneous about it. The NDP rallies (actually they are all the same) are contrived. Before Leader Jack Layton arrives, supporters practice cheering and waving signs, are told where to stand and when to be excited on cue. The big thing with with the Layton rallies is to have many supporters lined up behind him so the crowds looks much larger than they are. Seldom does Layton break out of the safety of the NDP family.

- Richard Brennan

Well-off guy speaks for the little guy

Even though NDP Leader Jack Layton has a household income in the top one per cent of Canadians, he says he can still speak for the little guy.

Between Layton and his wife Olivia Chow, who is also an MP, they earn a total of $353,000 annually (including benefits like housing in Ottawa) and Layton has a class A pension plan that could give him – depending on how long he stays around - a yearly amount three times the average Canadian income.

“I’ve spent my whole career working with people to get a fair shake and our party stands for the working people of this country and the middle class to make sure they get a fair shake and our policies reflect that,” said Layton, who also has a car and driver at his disposal when in Ottawa.

-Richard Brennan

NDP walking tall in Quebec

The New Democrats are running television ads like they're a dominant party in Quebec.

They're spending $1 million in Quebec alone on ads, and while the other parties spots have typically shown a person talking to a camera, the NDP’s are full of animation and accompanied by an unmistakable message.

The party has run an ad warning of another Stephen Harper government. Over dark, rolling images, with the faces of Harper and George W. Bush looming in the shadows, the announcer says: “A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for narrow mindedness, cuts to culture, against Kyoto…”  The viewer sees the words “pro war” over images of faceless soldiers, and “slave of the oilmen” over wrists raised in shackles.

Now they’ve turned their attention to the Bloc. An ad on TV screens today shows a maze, like in a suspenseful video game. “A vote for the Bloc Québécois…” the female announcer says, “blocks the environment, blocks the middle class, blocks the economy.” Viewers see a bicycle with square wheels, a helpless young man with his head between his knees. “But more than anything, blocks the future of Quebec,” she continues, as the camera pulls up from the maze to see the outline of Quebec.  Of course, leader Jack Layton comes on screen and declares, “To unblock things,” etc. etc.

The NDP isn’t expected to win a seat other than the one Thomas Mulclair captured for the party in a by-election last year in Outremont. But it’s true the party has never garnered so much interest in the province than in this election, so much so that the Bloc started running ads against the NDP for the first time ever. The Bloc has been worried that the NDP will siphon off progressive votes. As the Tories falter in the polls, however, the NDP might end up siphoning off those who were considering the Conservatives but now are changing their minds, which could be good for the Bloc.

The ads, produced by award-winning Montreal firm Amen Creation, begin with the image of a ballot, and a voter about to check off one of the other parties.

One might assume – though the party won’t confirm this – that the Liberals are next on the hit list.

 

Saskatoon? We have a problem

Under a slate grey sky with blowing rain cutting into their faces, half frozen Saskatoon and area New Democrat supporters waited and waited for NDP Leader Jack Layton to get off his campaign plane today.

"This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen," said a disgruntled supporter who sought shelter in a nearby bus.

The plan was for the rally to be held in a hangar at the Saskatoon airport but the company refused to move the planes out. Layton ended up speaking from a wooden soapbox just outside the gates to the airport.

- Richard Brennan

The seat that still awaits Layton

It has been 31 days of NDP Leader Jack Layton talking about the importance of the kitchen table as opposed to the board room table. And yet, Layton has not visited one home and sat at a kitchen table.

-Richard Brennan