Harper accused of singling out Muslims
Tory leader has unlikely ally in Bloc’s Duceppe on ISIS
MONTREAL— Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was singled out for attack in the fifth and final election debate that saw a sinking NDP leader and a rising Liberal chief angling for voters with just two weeks left before the vote. Both the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair and the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau said it is time to remove the Tory leader from power after nearly a decade at the head of the country. Trudeau, who has positioned himself as the champion of the middle class, said Harper is protecting the rich and hoping that their wealth will magically trickle down to those seeking jobs and struggling to make ends meet.
“The fact that you say the middle class is doing well in this country is proof that you are completely detached from reality. You’ve spent too much time in 24 Sussex. It’s time for a change,” said Trudeau, in an attack on Harper job-creation record. Mulcair, whose once buoyant election campaign has stalled in the last week, was the scrappiest leader in the televised French-language debate, broadcast by the TVA network. With his party’s support still strongest in Quebec, which is home to the majority of his incumbent candidates, he has been hobbled by his party’s opposition to a proposed ban on the veil worn by some Muslim women, known as the niqab, at Canadian citizenship ceremonies.
Mulcair said that the sight of a woman wearing a niqab, which is an extremely rare occurrence, makes him “uneasy,” but he refuses to spend taxpayers’ money, like the Tories are doing, to fight against a court ruling that a niqab ban would be unconstitutional — a violation of religious freedoms.
“Your position is completely disconnected from the reality in Canada as well as the opinions of Canadians and Quebecers,” said Harper, whose party has rebounded in the polls after the issue took centre stage in the election campaign.
“The reality is that in an open society there are times when we can’t hide our faces.”
Mulcair accused the Conservative leader of singling out Canada’s Muslims in the debate, isolating them from the rest of their fellow Canadians.
“You are playing politics on the backs of one community,” Mulcair said.
“It’s unbecoming of a prime minister.”
The latest poll, from Léger, found that Trudeau’s Liberals were leading nationally with 32 per cent support, followed by Harper’s Conservatives at 30 per cent and Mulcair’s NDP at 26 per cent.
The NDP’s troubles appear particularly pronounced in Quebec, according to the poll, which found the party had dropped 10 percentage points in the last week, but still held a narrow lead over the Liberals and Bloc Québécois, followed by the Tories.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe took pleasure in the poll findings that his sovereigntist team had taken a lead among francophone voters and had some good shots at his opponents through the two-hour debate, but betrayed his long experience in federal politics by referring several times to Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, as “Art Carney.”
The flashpoints of the debate came when leaders were asked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major international trade deal that could be completed this weekend, as well as the ongoing fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The NDP leader has pledged to end Canada’s participation in the bombing mission and took aim at Harper.
“You have never seen a war that you didn’t like,” Mulcair told the Tory leader. “I’m convinced that it’s not in dropping more bombs that we are going to make the world more secure.”
But Harper had an unlikely ally in Duceppe who said of ISIS: “There are moments in history where we don’t have a choice because those people don’t understand any other language.”
On the looming trade deal, all leaders lined up behind Canada’s supply management system of protections for dairy farmers, which is a particularly sensitive subject in Quebec. Mulcair has said he would back out of any eventual trade deal that undermines the protected dairy market, while Harper tried to calm fears and tout the opportunities in the massive free trade deal.