Duceppe the fighter emerges
Bloc Quebecois leader says his party will make federal Liberals ‘ disappear’ in Quebec
LONGUEUIL, Que. — Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe threatened the federal Liberal party with virtual extinction in Quebec on Sunday, vowing to wipe the Paul Martin Grits off the province’s electoral map.
Duceppe’s fighting words came as the leaders of the Liberal and Conservative parties enjoyed a relatively leisurely day on the campaign trail and the NDP’s Jack Layton returned to Ottawa after stumping for support in Vancouver.
“ To build the future, to achieve the sovereign Quebec that we have all imagined together — that is the challenge of this campaign,” Duceppe told members of his party at a general council to discuss the election.
“That is what we will achieve, that is what you will do, that is what I will do, that unprecedented mobilization so that on Jan. 23, we will tell ourselves fortunately, here it is the Bloc Quebecois and fortunately, the Liberals, we have made them disappear.”
Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, the Liberals’ Quebec lieutenant, promptly called on Duceppe to withdraw his comments.
“That kind of language, where you want to make people disappear, there is a bit of a tone of Nazism in that ... What kinds of society does he have in store for us if he is proposing an intolerant Quebec where those who don’t think the same thing have to shut up and have to disappear.
“ For the last few days, we have seen that he wants to silence the strong voices in Quebec — personally attacking ministers,” Lapierre later added. “What he did to Liza Frulla was the cheapest thing you can do — try to start gossip that has no foundation.”
The exchange in Quebec was the only fireworks in the federal campaign Sunday. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was on a one-day break before resuming his efforts in Ottawa today.
Prime Minister Paul Martin spent Sunday buying a holiday wreath for 24 Sussex Drive before flying to Newfoundland, where the Liberal campaign kicks off its second week.
Layton capped his first week on the campaign trail Sunday by accusing the Liberals and Conservatives of being indistinguishable on health-care policy.
“Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives will stop the dramatic growth of private health care,” Layton said at a dim sum breakfast event in Vancouver’s Chinatown. “ Paul Martin has not, and Stephen Harper won’t.”
While Layton has always talked tough about stopping the growth of private clinics in Canada, he said Sunday he’s not concerned about those that don’t accept public money for services.
“What happens with people in the privacy of their own relationship, financially, that’s up to them,” he said. “Our focus is on what happens to the public-tax dollars that we all contribute to help take care of Canadians. We don’t want them going to the American- style, for- prof it health corporations that end up skimming off profits instead of financing people’s health care.”
Taxes, accountability and crime are the subjects for the first set of Conservative television ads, unveiled Sunday.
In each, Harper appears, coffee cup at hand, in a mock television interview with a female host to discuss the particular issue.
After brief exchange, the host throws to an “average Canadian” who appears by video with a complaint about taxes that “ disappear after the election,” drug dealers and gang members “that get deported but don’t leave,” and politicians corrupted by power in Ottawa.
“What would Mr. Harper do?” asks a grey-haired lady scared by crime.
The Conservative leader explains that if he were prime minister, he would cut the goods and services tax, implement strict accountability rules to clean up the federal government in the wake of the sponsorship scandal, and impose mandatory minimum sentences to deal with serious drug crimes.
Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen
with file from Allan Woods