liberal is the only vote

Martin slams the `far, far right'
Says Tories not `progressives' of old
Jan. 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
LES WHITTINGTON
thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=
1137885338482&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Saying Canadians are on the brink of putting a United States-style right-wing party in power, Paul Martin is issuing a final appeal to left-wing voters of every stripe to join the Liberals in stopping a Conservative victory on Monday.

"Let's be honest, we have a challenge on our hands," the Liberal leader said in London, as he made his last campaign swing along Highway 401 to Kitchener and the GTA.

Martin continued to try to focus voters' attention on what he says are the extremist political views kept under wraps by Stephen Harper and other Conservative candidates in the past eight weeks.

"There is only one party that can stop the radical right and that is the Liberal party," he declared. "To the undecided, those who are leaning NDP or Green or still not convinced, I say: Elect a government and a prime minister and MPs who believe in the things that you do."

Citing Harper's plans to cancel national child care, abandon the Kyoto environmental commitments, allow MPs to vote on banning same-sex marriage and rethink $5 billion in support for aboriginals, Martin said, "We have a party that wants to take this country to the far, far right of the U.S. conservative movement."

And he reminded voters that today's federal Conservatives are not the same Progressive Conservatives of years gone by. "That party, the party of Bob Stanfield, the party of Joe Clark ... the party that was proud to call itself progressive, is no more. It's as dead as disco."

Instead, he says, "What we've got now is a rehashed version of Preston Manning's Reform party, we've got a dolled-up variation of Stockwell Day's Canadian Alliance." (The Alliance merged with the Progressive Conservatives to create the current Conservative Party of Canada.)

Martin, 67, also repeated his argument that Harper would lead a national government in the mould of former Ontario premier Mike Harris.

A Harper government, like that of Harris, would cut social programs and mismanage the budget, the Liberal leader asserted.

Martin's party is running second, about 10 points back in the polls. But he is still holding out hope for an 11th-hour resurgence similar to the comeback the Liberals staged in 2004 to win a minority government.

"Sometimes it takes a challenge to remind us that what we have is worth protecting, is worth fighting for," he told Liberal backers in London.

"I believe that over this weekend more and more Canadians are taking a hard look at what Stephen Harper has planned for us, and they're deciding that they have something that they are going to fight very strongly against."

He continued to call on NDPers to desert their party and vote Liberal in a united front against the Conservatives.

"If you lend Jack Layton your vote, then you will hand Stephen Harper your country," Martin said in Brampton.

For the second day, Martin poked fun at the Conservatives for what the Liberals say is an effort to keep controversial Tory candidates out of the spotlight. Harper, said Martin, claims MPs should have greater opportunities to speak out "except during an election campaign."

"He doesn't want them to tell Canadians what they believe," Martin remarked, adding that the more extremist views among his caucus on same-sex marriage, abortion and other social issues may not be so far from those held by the leader. "What Stephen Harper doesn't want you to know is that he agrees with those candidates."

Along the campaign trail, Liberals were subdued about their party's chances. But there was still hope that Martin's warnings about electing right-wingers might be heeded.

Janko Peric, the Liberal candidate in the riding of Cambridge, told fellow Liberals: "On Monday, all of us, together with the rest of Canadians will have to make, probably, an historic decision."

Peric said later that there was still a large undecided vote that could go Liberal. For example, he said, people are alarmed by the Conservatives' complaints about Liberal-appointed, social activists in the judiciary.

"Listen, I was born under a regime like that, under Communism where the politicians were interfering with courts," said the Croatian-born candidate. "I don't want that kind of Canada."