NDP campaign plane tradition: Jack Layton brings out his guitar

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

  

It has become a tradition on the New Democrat campaign plane for Jack Layton to bring his acoustic guitar to the back of the plane and lead a sing-along with the media. So, on our flight from Halifax back to Ottawa on Saturday evening, staffers passed around the Pete Seeger song books and we all crowded into a few seats to join Layton for some rousing (but not so beautifully sung) renditions of classics chosen by the media flipping through the book.

We began with Barrett's Privateers by Stan Rogers, which only made sense given one of the lines in the chorus is about a "broken man on a Halifax pier". We followed it up with "Molly Malone" (also known as "Cockles and Mussels" or "In Dublin's Fair City"), at the request of CBC's Rosemary Barton, who said it is her mother's favourite song. We also sang "Downtown" by Petula Clark and Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay".

Layton said he's been playing guitar since high school (the first song he ever learned the chords to was "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain") and he remembers strumming in the cafeteria at Hudson High School while one fellow student named Larry Smith played the piano.

Smith, as many of you already know, became a football player, president of the Montreal Alouettes, publisher of the Gazette and was then appointed a Conservative senator by Stephen Harper. Smith is now running in the riding of Lac-Saint-Louis on the West Island of Montreal, hoping to unseat Liberal incumbent Francis Scarpaleggia.

Guelph Tory candidate reacts to Star story

Posted by Allan Woods, Ottawa Bureau

A Toronto Star story I published Friday about Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke raised some dust in the riding.

Burke's campaign and the party's central war room in Ottawa wouldn't respond to my repeated requests for an explanation about his assertion in 2004 that the Afghan mission was "near worthless" days.

But he did get back to the Star's sister paper, the Guelph Mercury with a statement that they included in a follow-up story.

Apparently his beef was with former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin's government sending Canadian troops to Afghanistan without the proper equipment. One can understand how this would strike a nerve with the air force officer-turned-Air Canada-pilot-turned-Tory candidate.

He didn't, however, explain his complaints about the appointment in 2005 of Governor General Michaelle Jean and why he was so upset that another female, immigrant, visible minority was being named to the post following Adrienne Clarkson.

Burke's opponents in the riding weren't so convinced with Burke's explanation, accusing him of being whipped into supporting the official party lines.

But It seems Prime Minister Stephen Harper is fine with his candidate being off-side with the party's policies and positions at the time. The Conservative leader plans to land in the Guelph riding, where they hope to unseat Liberal MP Frank Valeriote, on Monday evening.

I'll be there and I'll report back how things go.

National media play an April Fool's Day prank on NDP Leader Jack Layton

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

 
 

The national media touring with New Democrat Leader Jack Layton realized early on in the campaign that we would be on the road for April Fool's Day and so we decided to play a little joke on the leader. There were a few ideas tossed around, but Heather Scoffield of The Canadian Press came up with the winner: we would all wear white paper moustaches.

The idea was to poke fun at Layton's iconic facial feature but also riff off the stick-on eyebrows the Liberals handed out to media travelling with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to make fun of his own, er, facial hair. It would be funny, harmless and all we needed was a pair of scissors, paper and some tape. Easy.

Rosemary Barton of the CBC got to work cutting out all our little moustaches, which included fringe along the bottom, while the tour flew from Montreal to Sudbury on Thursday night and then handed them out with little pieces of tape this morning as we were waiting at Laurentian University for Layton to announce a plan to improve access to family doctors.

We kept them in our pockets until Layton finished his speech and then opened it up to questions, when we all donned our moustaches and tried to keep a straight face.

Layton, no doubt aware the news conference was being broadcast on television, hardly let on anything was up as he listened to a question from Richard Madan at CTV (pictured above), who also played it straight as he asked about the doctor-retention fund Layton had announced.

"Well, I just simply recommend you get a shave," Layton said as we finally released some giggles, before going on to answer the question seriously.

We wore the moustaches the entire time, although many of us had trouble keeping them on. Global News reporter Mike Drolet had trouble getting his words out through the paper and tape drooping over his lip and my own moustache was smeared with lipstick by the end.

Layton never really laughed, but just after he left the podium he turned around to say:

"That was cute. I hope somebody took a picture of that."

Yes, we took many, including one of yours truly that Globe and Mail reporter Gloria Galloway posted to Twitter.

Cheryl Gallant issues late-night Twitter apology to Michael Ignatieff

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

It appears Conservative incumbent Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke) has pulled a Kanye West and issued a late-night Twitter apologyto Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff for changing his name so that it sounded like that of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Gallant, who goes by the handle @cherylgallant on Twitter, posted the following at 11:24 p.m. on Thursday:

@M_Ignatieff, sorry about remark on day 1. No place in debate about ideas and values

Unlike the belated Twitter mea culpa from the controversial rapper, which everyone knew was for having so rudely interrupted country music singer Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it was not immediately clear what Gallant was apologizing for.

But searching for her Twitter handle suggested Gallant had appeared to play on Ignatieff's name so that it seemed like she was comparing him to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The alleged tweet cannot be found on Gallant's Twitter timeline, but someone named Tricia Wood, or @pkbwood, captured a screen shot of the tweet being archived on OpenParliament.ca, which keeps track of tweets by politicians.

The second tweet up from the bottom, apparently posted three days ago, says:

Wilmer Verch had super efficient wood furnaces @ Renfrew Home Show.  No carbon tax please, Igaffi!

Gallant could not immediately be reached for comment and no one answered the telephone at the Conservative war room (it is pretty late at night, after all).

The official Twitter account for Ignatieff (@M_Ignatieff) had not yet responded by 12:31 a.m. Friday, as the latest tweet, posted Thursday at 2:11 p.m., was clearly not on the topic:

   You haven't lived until you've had a Kelekis hot dog and shoestring fries.

Ignatieff spokeswoman Leslie Church sent me an email at 12:38 a.m. Friday outlining her understanding of the story behind the apology:

"Cheryl Gallant was under fire tonight for calling Mr. Ignatieff 'Igaffi', in a poorly judged, less than subtle reference to Gaddafi on her Twitter account," Church wrote.

 

Day 6: NDP in Quebec

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau 

New Democrat Leader Jack Layton heads to Montreal today, where the party holds just one seat but hopes to capitalize on recent poll numbers to expand in the province.

Layton will make an announcement at Insertech Angus at 11 a.m. The institution provides personalized training programs to young unemployed adults so they can enter the job market with the skills they need, so expect the policy announcement to cover that topic. He will spend much of the afternoon taping an episode of Tout le monde en parle, an irreverent and highly popular current affairs talk show on Radio-Canada, and taking part in an editorial board meeting at a Montreal newspaper.

Everyone had been expecting Layton to stop in Outremont – the former Liberal fortress where Thomas Mulcair won his seat in a 2007 by-election – but the riding the NDP bus stops in today is Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, which the Bloc Quebecois has held since its formation in 1990. Bernard Bigras won by a landslide in the 2008 election, receiving 52 per cent of the votes. The Liberal candidate placed a distant second with 18.7 per cent of the vote share, but the NDP came in third with only 1,263 fewer votes. Capturing the seat from the Bloc remains highly unlikely, but it looks like there is at least a battle for second place.

The unique political landscape of Quebec, where the Bloc takes much of the progressive vote, has made it difficult for the NDP to be a player in the province, but party officials have been quick to point to recent Quebec-only polls that put them in second place, about 10 points ahead of the Liberals.

NDP releases television ad attacking Harper's record on health care

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

The New Democrats released a television ad attacking Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's record on health care, which they say will begin airing Tuesday during popular programs including American Idol, Dr. Phil and morning news show Canada AM.

The first NDP ad in this election campaign features an animated doctor pushing a patient on a stretcher into a doughnut shop, referencing a Globe and Mail story from earlier this month about how the emergency room at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C. is dealing with its overflow of patients by moving some of them to the adjacent coffee shop.

It gets even more crowded when an animated Harper pops up and the narrator explains that the Conservative plan to train 100 doctors means one family physician for every 50,000 patients that need one.

(The Conservative government announced last month it would provide $40 million over four years to create 100 new training positions for medical students in rural areas, in the hopes they would stay there and provide family physicians to remote and under-serviced communities. So the ad )

The ad then loses its cartoonish tone and cuts to NDP Leader Jack Layton sitting in front of a Canadian flag, promising to make things better.

The NDP says the spot will form part of the largest advertising campaign in party history, although officials would not release any figures beyond saying they are running a fully funded $23 million campaign.

When asked about the ad, Layton said little except that the NDP will make health care a major issue in this campaign.

Layton said he does not trust Harper to negotiate the 2014 Health Accord with provinces and territories, which will determine how the federal government funds health care for a decade.

"I don’t trust him to negotiate those arrangements," Layton told reporters at a campaign stop in Kitchener, Ont. on Tuesday. "I don’t think he fundamentally believes in how our public health care system needs to be developed and supported and expanded and improved for Canadians, so we’re putting a major focus on that issue in this campaign for sure.”

Layton offered some help from above

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

People who go out to meet a politician at a campaign stop like to shake his hand and tell him their story, and that part of the post-announcement walkabout on a suburban street in Brantford, Ont. was no different than usual for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

There was an 85-year-old woman named Ethel whose father was with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor party to the NDP, who remembers Tommy Douglas as an inspiration just like Layton does.

Then there was Iqbal Singh.

Standing above six feet tall, wearing a flowing white robe, a matching turban and golden slippers, it is fair to say Singh stood out among the small crowd of supporters surrounding Layton as he made his way to his RCMP vehicle.

"Waheguru," Singh said as he took Layton's hands. "Just say the word."

"Waheguru," Layton said.

"You'll make it," Singh told Layton, telling him he was praying fofr his good health. "I wish you good luck. I am there to support you anywhere you go in Ontario."

"I have a divine message," Singh then said, pointing to the sky.

Singh later explained to me that in the Sikh religion, Waheguru is a name of God.

Singh, who lives in Brantford and works as a sales associate at a hardware store in Burlington, said he was watching Layton on television one day when he received divine inspiration to help him out. So, he called up Marc Laferriere, the NDP candidate for Brant, and decided to show up for an announcement about capping credit card interest rates at five percentage points plus prime.

"My prayers for the next 40 days will be to get Jack to the best situtaion of health and be the winner here. We need a leader like him who is for the people here," said Singh.

Day 4: NDP hits Southern Ontario; Layton chats about his health on the plane

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

Day 4: the events, the ridings, the chances.

Good morning. The NDP tour spent the night in Hamilton, Ont. but will begin the day in nearby Brantford, where Leader Jack Layton will make the first policy announcement of his campaign at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, which will be about credit cards and household debt.

Conservative Phil McColeman currently holds the Brant riding, but the Liberals want it back for Lloyd St. Amand, who represented Brant in the House of Commons from 2004 to 2008. This is not a clear Blue vs. Orange race like the ridings Layton was targeting out west the first three days of his campaign, but the NDP still sees the Southern Ontario industrial belt as a potential for growth having won Welland in the last campaign. They are running social worker Marc Laferriere.

Layton will then head to Kitchener for a local radio interview followed by some mainstreeting at a sports store owned by a local family on Duke St. W. The Kitchener Centre riding is held by Conservative Stephen Woodworth, but he defeated former Liberal MP Karen Redman by just 339 votes in 2008 and she is running to take it back. The NDP is running retail manager Peter Thurley.

Mr. Layton, how's your hip?

Layton joined the media travelling at the back of his campaign plane Monday night on the flight from Regina, Sask., to Hamilton, Ont. for a quick but casual chat about his health. Layton said he's keeping up with the excerises the doctor ordered with the help of his sister, Nancy, a phys. ed. teacher and a golf pro, who travels on the campaign as his assistant. Layton admits he misses his usual high-intensity workouts (he is known to hit the fitness centre twice a day on the campaign trail) but said he expects to be doing some cardio soon.

Three weeks after undergoing surgery for his fractured hip, Layton is still walking with the help of a crutch with an arm brace, but he said it's mainly for balance.

"The biggest worry is that you fall before all the healing has happened and then you have a real setback," said Layton, who usually has the cane at his right side during public events but rarely leans on it except while walking up to the microphone.

"You have to walk around and keep the blood flowing in your legs," he said while wiggling his feet back and forth.

Supporters always crowd around Layton and reach out to shake his hand when he makes his way through a crowd at a rally or campaign stop, but he said he isn't worried about getting jostled.

"I'm not nervous. These are all friendly people," he said.

Press secretary Karl Belanger looked a bit nervous and reached out an arm to steady his boss when the plane dipped a bit to begin its descent into Hamilton, but Layton pointed out his balance was better than some of those crowded around him.

"Now that the plane is beginning to weave and bob, you'll notice I don't have to grab a chair," he laughed.

One reporter asked if he was "fed up" with us asking about his health and he said no, or at least was too polite to tell us otherwise.

"No, I'm not fed up with you asking about my health," said Layton, who has also been successfully battling prostate cancer since last year. "It's always, I find, with a lot of good will."

Before heading back to the front, Layton had a message for all of us living out of a suitcase (and also missing our workouts...) with him these weeks, which I found rather touching: "Well, listen -- you're all away from your families and we appreciate that, so good for you."

Google helping Liberals steal NDP voters

Posted by Allan Woods

All parties are aggressively trying to capitalize on the growing use of social media. The New Democratic Party has launched an iPhone app, all parties are pushing their announcements and criticisms on Twitter and most candidates in the May 22 election have dedicated Facebook sites to attract supporters.

But if you were still doubting the parties' faith that technology can give them an edge, here's some more evidence.

Punch "NDP" into your google search engine, then peer over to the right hand side of your computer screen. 

There, you'll find an advertisement for Michael Ignatieff's Liberals and a fairly blatant attempt to steal the eyeballs, if not the voters, that would normally lean to the left leaning New Democrats. The small print reads:

"Learn more about Michael Ignatieff and his bold, new vision for Canada"

(Google seems to be alternating the ads between one for the Liberals and another for Ontario government tax credits)

The Liberal party's problem over the last two election campaigns has been fighting for votes with the two other left-of centre parties while the Conservative Party claims all those on the centre-right of the political spectrum.

The last two election campaigns have come down to Liberal leaders pronouncing in the dying days of the race that voters need to rally around their party to hold the Tories at bay.

It hasn't worked of course, and there's no evidence it will work any better this time around, but at least it's a bit more subtle.

 

There are great tales from the campaign trail, and then there is this one.

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

There have been some good laughs among the media travelling with the NDP campaign this year, but this weird story takes the cake.

It involves a hotel room. It involves tin foil. It involves  robots. And love.

James Cudmore of CBC Radio has already done a good job telling the tale (yes, he used the phrase Domo Arigato from the song "Mr. Roboto" by Styx) and being part of the broadcast pool he has permission to publish the photographic evidence where I do not, so I will let him take it from here.

Before you hit the link, you should heed his warning:

This blog contains material of a (robo) sexual nature.