Word this morning was that Michael Ignatieff stopped in at a Mississauga hockey game last night at the invitation of the mayor and got booed when he waved on the Jumbotron. Awww. Mind you, any politician would be booed at a hockey game, so it’s not necessarily a reflection on Ignatieff personally. And some accounts said he got cheers, too.
Later, Ignatieff had a paid 30-minute infomercial on broadcast television, which was called “Michael Ignatieff’s Town Hall for Canada.” It was largely a compilation of Liberal advertising cut with clips from previous town hall meetings and rallies, and showed much better production values than those we’ve seen. It was certainly a way of getting the messages out to those who haven’t seen them.
Meanwhile, at a suburban locale in Victoria, BC, Harper delivered a pretty standard stump speech. He read from a binder on a music stand and used a wired mic, rather than his now-standard teleprompter and wireless lapel mics. His pitch of the day was a reannouncement of his $500 children’s arts tax credit (30 cents a day for piano lessons). When he took questions from the media – who had this vantage point – first up was the CBC’s Terry Milewski, who asked about Conservative candidate Wei Young and the endorsement of an Air India bombing backer (the candidate put out a statement, and we accept it); the acts of vandalism against Liberals (we suffer acts of vandalism too, this is a democracy); the question of trusting him (we’ve been focused on the economy, we have a record to prove it, and the other parties forced an election and haven’t given clear reasons for it – because contempt of Parliament and loss of confidence in the government apparently didn’t happen); how he can claim he’ll get savings from civil service attrition when the numbers don’t add up (the budget is clear, and we will achieve balance in 2015); the battleground for NDP seats (we know in BC that’s the battle, and we’re the only party capable of forming a strong, national majority); and students getting thrown out of rallies while he refuses to meet with a group down the road (we’ve had strong student representation at all rallies and meetings, and the Canada Social Transfer is protected in our plans).
Jack Layton held a photo op at a Toronto-area church and will be at the Khalsa Day parade in Toronto along with Michael Ignatieff and Jason Kenney later today. He isn’t holding any other media availabilities.
Why you can trust Xtra
