A HELPING HANDSHAKE
Laureen Harper greets workers Wednesday at the riding office of candidate Stella Ambler in Mississauga while her husband, Tory leader Stephen Harper, prepares for the first leaders’ debate.
Laureen Harper set out across the politically crucial Greater Toronto Area on Wednesday to motivate Conservative troops, as husband Stephen huddled with advisers to prepare for the upcoming leaders’ debate.
From her words, her task appeared clear: generate excitement among those whose summer vacations were sacrificed because of her husband’s early call to dissolve Parliament — a move that plunged Canada into the longest election campaign since 1872.
“I know that lots of people are groaning, but the people that love politics are happy,” Harper told a few dozen supporters at the riding office for Tory candidate Costas Menegakis in suburban Richmond Hill.
“We’ve campaigned in the winter, over Christmas and at Easter, in the fall. I think the only time that we’ve not campaigned is in the summer, so now we’ve done it ... We’ve done the four seasons.”
She visited two new ridings Wednesday in the Toronto area, a critical battleground for Canada’s three principal parties. The region will likely to play a major role in determining who forms the next government. Harper’s visits to Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill and later to Mississauga-Lakeshore were far less scripted than the prime minister’s tightly controlled campaign events usually are. She also appeared much more at ease mingling and posing for photos with the people she met.
Speaking to a similar-sized crowd in Mississauga-Lakeshore, Harper repeated her call for Canadians to help local candidates during the campaign — regardless of the party they support.
“I’m very partial to blue,” said Harper, who explained how she got her start in politics by making posters for one of former Tory MP Diane Ablonczy’s campaigns more than 20 years ago. “I know lots of Canadians are like, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ but when you like politics everybody can hardly wait to get started.”
Her husband, the Conservative Party leader, has been criticized for his early launch to the election campaign in midsummer, when fewer Canadians are paying attention.
The extra-long campaign, which ends on the Oct. 19 election day, will also be the most expensive one ever for taxpayers. The public purse will contribute millions more in administrative costs and tens of millions more in rebates to parties and candidates for their added election expenses.
After three days of campaigning around Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Ont., and Toronto, the Tory leader was hunkered down Wednesday with his team to prepare for Thursday’s debate.
Harper’s clan — including his son and daughter — have so far featured prominently during partisan rallies and media photo ops.
Mississauga-Lakeshore Tory candidate Stella Ambler said her party’s leader dispatched his “secret weapon” to help his re-election cause while he prepped.
Laureen Harper downplayed such a title, and later said: “There’s no secrets, there’s no special sauce, it’s just hard working: knocking on doors, making phone calls, going after votes one at a time.”