TRUDEAU TAKES AIM AT TORIES
Slams environmental record at Calgary campaign launch
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau brought his green economic agenda to a Calgary rally, arguing Ottawa must be more aggressive in cutting carbon emissions while attracting jobs and economic growth.
With an 11- week federal campaign underway, Trudeau touched down in a city that hasn’t elected a Liberal since 1968 to attack Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s economic and environmental record.
The election may bring opposition parties their best shot in years to make inroads in the Conservative stronghold of Calgary, according to one observer. And the challengers have wasted no time attempting to pry open what they see as chinks in the Conservative armour.
“What we have here is a government that refuses to understand there is no longer a choice to be made between what’s good for the environment and what’s good for the economy,” Trudeau told hundreds of supporters at a rally in Calgary Confederation, a riding with no incumbent MP.
“Over the past 10 years that ( Harper has) been ignoring our environmental responsibilities, our economy has suffered as well.”
Michelle Rempel, the Conservative candidate in Calgary Nose Hill, defended the Tory record on climate change, countering the party has overseen a reduction in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. She said federal politicians shouldn’t be musing about setting prices for carbon “at a time that the economy remains fragile.
“A tax like that raises the price of everything,” she warned. “Albertans won’t be fooled by the Liberals’ high tax agenda.”
Calgary, the home of many oilpatch head offices, may appear to be a bizarre arena to tout more aggressive carbon- cutting policies.
But Trudeau’s message of environmental responsibility may play well with Albertans who are angry their province has become “the environmental bad guys,” said Lori Williams, a political science professor at Mount Royal University.
The Liberal pitch is that redeeming the image of Canada’s oil industry can improve the country’s chances of marketing its resources abroad.
“That’s a message that might appeal quite well, maybe not to all Albertans, but certainly to a significant number of Albertans who haven’t appreciated being demonized and vilified in the international press,” Williams said.
Harper has launched one of the longest and most expensive campaigns in Canadian history, a race that stretches a stunning 78 days. The prime minister, who is running in the redrawn Calgary Heritage riding, immediately attracted criticisms that his party will use the long campaign to outspend his rivals with a deeper war chest.
“We see the announcement for what it is ... a government trying to cling to power,” said Liberal Kent Hehr, who hopes to unseat Tory Joan Crockatt in Calgary Centre.
Harper told reporters in Ottawa his opponents had already begun campaigning — an early election call means parties must fund these activities on their own, rather than relying on government or parliamentary budgets.
On a day that Trudeau spent in Conservative territory, Harper was in Quebec, the Liberal leader’s home province, promising tax benefits for businesses that hire would- be tradespeople.
Opposition parties haven’t won a seat in Calgary in more than four decades, but Williams said this race may be “their best shot in a while.”
She pointed to the emergence of several strong challengers, new and redrawn ridings, and the potential that former Alberta Progressive Conservatives who are now running federally will be vulnerable because their provincial party was soundly defeated in May.
Williams said big spending promises the Conservatives recently made in their traditional Calgary fortress — $ 583 million for the city’s southwest ring road and $ 1.5 billion for the Green Line LRT — show they’re worried.
The Conservatives and Liberals have nominated candidates in all of Calgary’s 10 ridings, though the Grits haven’t yet selected hopefuls in two other southern Alberta constituencies: Bow River and Foothills.
The Green Party, which vows to run candidates in every riding, has selected contenders in all but one Calgary riding, Calgary Rocky Ridge, where a nomination meeting is scheduled for Aug. 8.
The New Democrats, meanwhile, have nominated only two candidates in the city: Laura Weston in Calgary Midnapore and Dany Allard in Calgary Shepard.
Williams noted many NDP candidates who were planning federal campaigns had run in the May 5 provincial election and won under Rachel Notley’s orange crush.
Weston said she wasn’t nervous about her party’s currently sparse roster of candidates.
“I hear at the doors over and over again that people are looking for a change,” Weston said.
Despite brewing challenges, the Tories continue to have “homefield advantage” in Calgary, where they are better prepared with deeper voter lists and more money to spend, said David Taras, a political analyst at Mount Royal University.
“The soft underbelly for Harper is the economy,” Taras said, noting a downturn has come after the prime minister pitched himself as the best leader to manage the national economy.
“The other parties are going to take aim relentlessly on the whole issue of Harper and the economy.”