paul martin impressed one

a woman i know was telling me that not long ago, her daughter decided to send a response off to something or other, on the liberal blog which martin's speech writer hosts. her question to martin was something along the line of a first time voter, why she should vote liberal or for the party ect.; as she was trying to make head way of who to vote for and to understand the issues better.

now after reading this, it makes me wonder, was part of this speech about this first time voter who emailed? but that really does not matter. what matters is, he listened and acknowledged these first time voters.

does one speech have that much influence into how this first time vote will vote? it did and will. and as i see it, if that what it takes to give the initiative to vote, so be it. so many young canadians do not vote. often they feel they do not hear their voice, so they do not bother taking the desire to learn the issues.

however, now, her voice was heard. a random act, voiced with a personal tone did make a difference.

one more to the active voters list!

Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin in Winnipeg
January 03, 2006
liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?id=11296

Good morning, and welcome to the federal election campaign, Act II. I hope you enjoyed the intermission. As Sheila says, almost two weeks without a speech from me – you can’t say you didn’t get something nice for Christmas.

But now it’s a new year, a new phase of the campaign, and I’ve got a new speech. Your respite is over.

With three weeks to go until election day, I think it’s fair to say it is only now that most Canadians will be giving this campaign their full attention. During the next number of days, I’ll be presenting elements of our election platform. But today, I want to do something a little different. I want to tell you about an email I received. “I’m voting for the first time,” a young woman wrote. “Tell me why I should vote for you.”

I answered her. But since then, I’ve found myself reflecting on that email – because what she’s asking is really the question that Canadians are asking across our country. They are looking at the parties and the leaders.

They are looking to vote for someone, and for something. They are looking to vote for a vision of Canada that is faithful to their values and the values on which this country was forged.

Today, I want to set the stage for the second half of the campaign by talking about those values – by giving my view of what’s at stake in this election and what it means for Canada. Because therein lies the answer to that young woman’s question – it lies in the values and the beliefs of those who seek to be prime minister.

In doing this, I am going to talk about a number of areas in which my beliefs differ from Stephen Harper’s. I will talk about what I believe a Prime Minister must do and what he must stand for. I will argue that the crucial test of his policies is what they mean for Canadian families – and whether today’s families will be left to try to make their own way, or given real support that will make a meaningful difference to them.

But underlying each of these elements will be the one difference that I believe, more than any other, will guide Canadians in making their choice on January 23rd. And that is the clear difference of values that is illustrated by Stephen Harper’s goal of a fend-for-yourself Canada and my vision of a country in which we strive together as a society toward a common good.

In the first phase of this campaign, I visited a number of schools. I had a chance to talk with students, to answer their questions, to see the look of panic on their faces as I turned the tables and asked questions of them. In these sessions, they never failed to surprise me, to challenge me and to impress me.

I went to Cornwall, Ontario. The day before I arrived, the town’s major employer announced it would be closing down. Canada’s unemployment rate is lower than it’s been since the seventies, but numbers like that don’t matter much when you just found out that your mom or dad has lost their job.

Did I get some questions about the plant closing and the economy? Yes, I did. I got three. Three questions out of 20 or so. For the rest of the time, the students asked largely about international issues, Canada’s place in the world, what we’re doing to help the poor in Africa.

And I found myself thinking: these kids are incredible. They really get it. Even at such a difficult time, they understand what a great country we live in, how fortunate we are, and how our good fortune brings with it a responsibility both to those within our borders and to others in the world. These students are proud when Canada stands on the world stage and leads. They are proud that there is no other country quite like ours.

And they’re right to be proud: We are doing so well as a nation. Together we have overcome challenges that have paralyzed other countries – we no longer borrow to pay our bills; we invest to protect our social programs; we are active in the world, helping to keep the peace in troubled lands; we speak with an independent voice all our own; and we have built a society in which newcomers feel welcome. Look around the world. You begin to understand what an achievement that is. Something to be proud of.

And so you can imagine how jarring it can be to sit the House of Commons and listen to what’s said there. Since I’ve become Prime Minister, I have stared across the floor at one party – the Bloc – that seeks to divide our remarkable country. And at another, the Conservatives, whose leader and whose members seem chronically unhappy and for whom pessimism has become the default approach to seemingly every issue.

Having heard the Bloc try so often to pose as the defender of Québec’s interests, some Quebecers might be tempted to think, 15 years later, that this is the purpose of this party.

But it’s not. We must never forget that the Bloc’s only true goal is the separation of Quebec. Nothing else.

If you support the Bloc, on the night of January 23rd Gilles Duceppe will grab hold of your ballot. He will wave it high. He will claim that, by voting for him, you have given him the mandate to seal his pact with André Boisclair and begin the process leading to a third referendum.

The Bloc is stuck in the past. It does not accept the fact that Québec has evolved.

Look at Quebec today. It is enterprising and united. It is innovative and creative. It is progressive and generous. It is confident and open to the world.

The Bloc wants to isolate Quebec from Canada at the very moment when the new global reality demands that we pool all of our strengths. Our competitors are not within our own borders, they are outside of them.

What I want is a Quebec that succeeds everywhere in the world because of its place within Canada, and a Canada that succeeds thanks to a strong and confident Quebec.

We Canadians have everything we need to succeed, to succeed beyond our imagination. But success won’t be served to us on a platter. We must unite our efforts and take advantage of our assets. Canada has everything to succeed. It would be foolish to divide ourselves.

The presence of francophones here in Manitoba and across Canada, their attachment to their language and their culture and Quebec’s determination to assert its particular identity from early on have prompted Canada, from the very beginning of its history, to deal with difference in a constructive way.

It is this experience which has led to Canada becoming a unique country. It is this experience which distinguishes us from other countries, such as the United States. And it is this experience which will make us say no to the Bloc and no to separation come January 23rd.

And then there are the Conservatives. On January 23rd, Canadians will elect one of two people as Prime Minister. I have listened to Stephen Harper speak on a number of occasions in the House. I’ve heard what he’s said on the campaign trail. I don’t think Canadians could ask for a choice between two leaders who are more different.

I see Canada as a success, a nation with tremendous potential, but Mr. Harper speaks to what he views as its failings. I see a Canada I’m proud of, a nation I believe to be a model to the world, but Mr. Harper speaks of how our country comes up short in his eyes. I see a Canada we can build on, improve on, move forward -- but he speaks of moving in a different direction, away from all we have achieved together and toward a very different country.

Mr. Harper has made a promise a day since this campaign began. Five promises, then ten, now more than 20. And more to come. In the details of his promise a day, in the words he speaks now, and in the words he has used to describe Canada, such as when called our country a “Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term,” we see the roadmap Stephen Harper would follow to arrive at his idea of Canada.

That’s why I say that the choice before Canadians is clear. I believe in moving forward, not in fighting old debates. I believe in pursuing change, but change that builds on all we have accomplished together, not change that would turn away from it.

I believe in respecting the Charter of Rights, not subjecting the fundamental freedoms of Canadians to the whims of the governing party. I believe in speaking on the world stage with an independent voice. I believe that working with the First Nations, the Metis Nation, the Inuit, we can profoundly and permanently improve the lives of Aboriginal Canadians. And I believe in making sure that responsible economic management remains a cornerstone of government.

Think about it: For three decades, our budget was chronically in deficit. We solved the problem. Eight straight balanced budgets in a row. Our public pension plan was at risk. We solved the problem. Now it will be there for generations to come. Our unemployment rate was in the double digits. Today, unemployment is at its lowest level in more than 30 years.

I believe in protecting our prosperity for generations to come. We’re doing that by paying down our national debt every year. And I believe in supporting today’s families. We’re doing that by cutting personal income taxes, so you keep more money in your pocket. Mr. Harper speaks of tax cuts, too, but his would extend the greatest benefit to the richest among us with the most to spend.

We’re supporting families with a plan for safer communities. Mr. Harper thinks there is only one solution to the scourge of gun violence – more punishment. We agree that’s part of the answer -- that’s why we believe in tough action to punish gun crime, including increasing mandatory minimum sentences. And that’s why we support what’s called reverse-onus bail – which places on those charged with gun crimes the burden of convincing a judge they won’t be a risk to others.

But we also believe that government has the duty to keep families whole by preventing gun crime. We will do that by banning handguns and by increasing enforcement at the border to stop gun smuggling. We will do that by creating a new, elite squad of the RCMP – to partner with local law enforcement to combat guns, gangs and drugs and keep our streets safe.

And perhaps most importantly, we will do it by working with community leaders to give hope to young people who so desperately seek it. When you talk to them, it is the sense of exclusion, the sense that opportunities provided to others will never be provided to them, that they identify as a root cause of the void too many seek to fill by turning to violence. We must fill that void by giving back to the young the hope they were born with.

Continuing on, we are supporting Canadian families by building this generation’s legacy to the next: a national program of early learning and child care, so that Canadian children – regardless of family income – can enter school ready to learn and leave school ready to succeed. We’ve signed agreements with all 10 provinces. We’ve committed funding over a decade to make sure the program becomes permanent. We’re creating child care spaces right across the country to give parents real choice.

And what would Mr. Harper do? He would pull the plug on all that. He would renege. He would terminate our agreements with the provinces. He would deny Canadians the first new social program in a generation. And what would he offer instead? $25 a week, per family, per child.

Now, that money would do some good. But here’s what I believe: I believe that in the real world, you cannot cut a cheque for $25 a week and call it a child care strategy. It’s not a strategy. It’s not a solution. It does little to help those parents with children in child care. It does nothing to help those who have trouble finding quality, affordable care for their children.

Think about it this way: What if decades ago, Tommy Douglas and my father and Lester Pearson had considered the idea of medicare and then said – forget it, let’s just give people 25 bucks a week.

It won’t help much if you get sick, but we’ll call it a strategy. We’ll call it a solution. Heck, we’ll call it medicare.

You want a fundamental difference between Mr. Harper and myself? Well, this is it.

I believe that social policy, the things we do to help each other out and help each other up, is a window on the kind of country we are, and the kind of country we want to be. I believe we give ourselves the best chance to succeed as a nation when we rally behind the conviction that we must leave no one behind.

But achieving that goal requires national leadership. It requires a prime minister who believes not in a fend-for-yourself society, but in naming a destination down the road and doing what it takes to ensure we get there together. Because it’s that faith – the faith that we are stronger together than we are alone – that has come to define the Canadian way and has led to so many of our shared achievements.

It’s a question of values – everyone for him or herself, or everyone coming together, standing side by side for the common good, for the betterment of all. I believe that the Canadian way is the way of fairness and generosity. It’s an approach that has produced the best country and the strongest economy in the world. As Prime Minister, I will work and fight to preserve it.

When you think about it in these terms, you understand that it matters who Canadians choose to be Prime Minister, and what that person believes.

Mr. Harper and I differ on child care and gun crimes, on tax cuts and foreign affairs. We differ on issues across the full spectrum of policy. And we have differences in matters far more elemental than that.

A decade ago, when he was a Reform MP, Mr. Harper said the following: “Whether Canada ends up as one national government, or two national governments, or several national governments or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion.”

Well, it’s never been secondary in my opinion. It’s never been secondary to the values or the beliefs of most Canadians. This is something that most of us feel at the very core of our being.

One Canada. Not two. Not several. One national government to unite us as Canadians. One national government to speak for us as Canadians. One Prime Minister to represent us as Canadians. Not two. Not several.

Canada needs a prime minister who will fight for what’s best for all of Canada, who is dedicated to standing against those who would divide us, who is dedicated to passing on a strong and united Canada for the generations to come. A Prime Minister who understands that almost 150 years ago, the people of our country took a decision that we would be stronger if we pulled together rather than if we pull apart. A Prime Minister who understands and believes that’s still true today.

And so to that young woman voting for the first time, to you and to all Canadians, I say this: As Prime Minister I will defend the Canada we have built together – defend its hard-won prosperity by staying out of deficit, defend its place in the world by speaking with an independent voice, defend its unity by standing against the separatists, defend its belief in fairness by protecting our social programs.

My party and I – we will deliver what no other party can, because we believe what no other party does. We will deliver the biggest tax cuts, the first new social program in a generation – child care – and the best plan for safer, healthier communities. As the only truly national party, we will protect our unity with strong voices from Quebec. We will support Canadian families. We will defend Canadian values.

Together, over years and decades of challenge, we have made Canada strong, a nation to be proud of, a country we think of a model to the world. Together, in the years to come, we can make Canada even stronger.

Of course there are challenges that confront us as a nation, and there will be more -- but when haven’t there been, and when haven’t we overcome them? That’s the story of Canada. That’s what we can achieve by working together. It’s what we can achieve with national leadership – with a prime minister who believes in the good that government can do.

I believe our country is worth celebrating. Not the Canada of some distant future. But the Canada of today. It’s worth celebrating. It’s worth protecting. It’s worth building on.

There is such potential in our nation, such promise in the years ahead. Together, we will fulfill that potential. Together, we will achieve that promise.

Thank you.