With Round One — the live French-language debate — complete, the leaders of the four major parties who sparred on French-language television last evening — in a sometimes spirited two-hour debate that many believe could have profound consequences for the June 28 vote — are ready to square off again tonight in a live English-language debate, at 5 p.m. PDT.

“Hey, maybe he’s not so scary, after all” Paul thinks to himself. “Nah, on 2nd thought, he really is.”

For the most part, the French-language debate was a front-runners’ duel, with Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper sparring over who could best handle the all-important issue of health care after June 28.
Staying above the fray, at least to some extent, Martin focused his attack on the Conservatives, saying their $90 billion spending programme would not be able finance an unprecedented increase in funding to the military, and still find a way to provide for an already stretched health-care system. “When you look at his programme, it is impossible to find the $50 billion (for health care),” he said of Harper. “Either he is going to cut in health care, or in other services. You can’t find $50 billion in a period of five years — I know the numbers.”
For his part, Harper rejected the allegation: “The increases for health care in our programme are more than 2 1/2 times more than (the amount) for national defence,” he said.
Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe was pleased to get out of the debate without having to respond to questions on the sovereignty issue. “I was ready to face their questions,” a smiling Duceppe said after the debate.
As for New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton …

Elections must be about ideas and about hope to build a green and prosperous society. We have to establish ties with progressive minded people in Québéc and across Canada by working — by doing so and working together, we have achieved positive results, the Kyoto Protocol, our position to the war in Iraq, human rights for same-sex couples and for women, work for social housing, and also the struggle for seasonal workers.
— NDP leader, Layton

Layton wasted no time in going after the Prime Minister’s record as finance minister in the 1990s, and said his hunger to pay down the national debt created “social deficits” Canadians could not afford.
Layton then tangled with Harper on the question of Canada’s involvement in the U.S.-led missile defence programme. “We think that Mr. Bush’s administration presents proposals that Canadians don’t want to follow. So why are you not listening to Canadians when they say they do not want to have militarization of space?” Layton said.
As far as the debates go, there are those among the political pundits who feel Prime Minister Martin came out snarling (or at least the hope is that he will in tonight’s English-language debate), while others are not so sure.
Whatever the case, in a federal election this close — and with so many voters still undecided — the importance of tonight’s English-language debate to focus on issues of concern to Canadians, and to more starkly elucidate the differences between the four major party platforms — knockout blow, or lack thereof, notwithstanding — presents an opportunity for the four major party leaders, as well as all Canadians, to focus on the Canada we would choose for our families, and for our neigbours.
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.

VanRamblings will provide a full update on the political events of the day (such as they might be), links to election-oriented websites of interest — and whatever else that seems compelling and related to the current federal election — that we run across throughout the day. See you back here this evening.

Earlier today, VanRamblings posted a Decision Canada Macromedia flash presentation — which you’ll find directly below — a sort of tongue-in-cheek ‘bashing’ of the various leaders of Canada’s federal political parties. Turns out that not only are participants in the Whack The PM game afforded the opportunity to ‘bash’ the Prime Ministerial candidate whose answer to a question s/he least likes, after answering a handful of questions, the Whack The PM website asks the player to place their postal code into a box provided.
Whack The PM then takes you to your electoral riding, where the site builders have created a facility whereby a checkmark is placed beside the leading candidate in the riding who would be most likely to defeat the federal party lead by your most ‘bashed leader’.
Of course, all of the above offers incentive enough to play the game below, if you haven’t played it already. Have fun.

Leaders Prepare for Upcoming Television Debates
Today is a quiet day on the campaign trail, as the four federal leaders to be included in the television debates (RealPlayer required) this Monday and Tuesday (Green Party leader Jim Harris, despite his protestations won’t be along for the ride) prepare for what is shaping up to be an ‘election changing’ exchange between Canada’s Prime Ministerial aspirants.
So, even though VanRamblings had planned a major Decision Canada update for today, we’ll instead simply reflect a bit on the upcoming debates.

In Gatineau, Que. this morning PM Paul Martin had better find a way to smile before the TV debates take place this week.

While Prime Minister Paul Martin mingled with vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables and shoppers at Ottawa’s ByWard Market yesterday afternoon, and participated in a Gatineau, Québéc pancake breakfast this morning, the remaining leaders remained huddled with their advisors preparing for the upcoming debates.
The four major party leaders have their work cut out for them.
Martin has to find a way to dissipate the public’s anger over the sponsorship scandal, remind voters of his record of fiscal prudence while Canada’s Finance Minister, and somehow convince Canadians that not only is his vision of Canada our vision of Canada, but that he will, in fact, set about to implement his programme of progressive social change.
Stephen Harper — even though he’s leading in the polls and has so far managed to run a ‘teflon campaign’ — has the most to lose. If Martin, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, and NDP leader Jack Layton can tag Harper with both hiding his agenda of regressive change to Canada’s social structure, and not only tolerating but supporting the racist, bigoted, homophobic, and increasingly disturbing remarks of an ever-growing contingent of regressive Conservative candidates, Harper could be done like dinner. The upcoming debates are Harper’s to lose. Cool, calm, collected and re-assuring, or it’s game over for Harper and co. (at least in terms of winning a majority of the seats in Parliament).
Plain and simple, NDP leader Jack Layton has to convince Canadians that a vote for his party is not a vote for the dreaded Conservatives.
Duceppe will be Duceppe, ever the Québéc nationalist. Still, as a potential coalition partner, Duceppe’s performance will be closely watched.

According to the latest Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll, mid-way through the election the Liberals (at 32%) and the Conservatives (at 31%) find themselves in a statistical dead heat. The pollster’s seat projection model suggests that a vote held today would result in a Conservative minority government, with between 114 and 118 seats, leaving the Liberals with between 104 and 108 seats, the Bloc Québécois with 61 to 65 seats, and the NDP with an increased presence in Parliament, with between 21 and 25 seats.
Meanwhile, the overnight CPAC-SES tracking poll shows that support for the Conservatives and Harper as PM has slipped: the Conservatives are at 34% (down from 37% in the previous day’s tracking poll), Liberals are up at 33%, while the NDP at 18%, the BQ at 11%, and Greens at 5% remain steady. Although earlier in the week Harper came close to Martin as best PM, the Martin lead has widened: Martin 31%, Harper 22%, Layton 11%.
SES’ nightly tracking indicates that when the campaign focuses on change, the Tory numbers move up and when the focus becomes the socially conservative views of some Tory candidates the Tory numbers go down.
Even so, in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, a confident ‘Bush-Lite’ Harper talked to reporters about the prospect of forming a majority government, suggesting that his Conservatives would deliver a Throne Speech in the fall followed by a budget emphasizing tax cuts and military spending.
In the weekend prior to the debate, SES finds that the election to be a horse race, and Harper perhaps a tad too optimistic (or is that arrogant?). With new campaign ad blitzes, and Tuesday night’s English-language televised debate, next week’s polling results ought to tell the tale.
Tory Wants Funding For The CBC Switched Off
For many, the most distressing aspect of the campaign occurs in consideration of what a Tory government would mean to the arts in Canada.
According to Guy Mason, president of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, Conservative cultural polices would gut film and television production in Canada.

“What we’re seeing could be a devastation of the industry in a free and open market in North America,” says Mason. “Who’s going to be creating Canadian content?”

In their pre-election report, the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) gave the Conservatives a C- (by far, the lowest ranking among the five major parties), for “no sign of support for the arts,” while in their Election Platform Matrix, the CCA finds the Conservatives …

Plan to audit all federal grant and contribution programmes and contracting policies ‘on an expedited basis’, would initiate an overall review of the relevance of the role played by the CRTC in Canada’s communication and broadcasting industries, and in respect of specific questions on funding to the CBC and the Canada Council, a spokesperson stated that there is “no mention in the platform (that) indicates status quo” for a first Conservative mandate.

In an article published in Thursday’s Edmonton Journal, freelance writer Todd Babiak writes that …

In its 46-page policy platform, the Conservative Party doesn’t mention art and culture. Not even in the appendix. The word art only appears once, in quotations, decrying the “artistic licence” defence for child pornographers. Stephen Harper and other Conservatives have said they would cut finding to the CBC in whole or in part, and Heritage critic Jim Abbott supports lifting foreign ownership restrictions on telecom companies and broadcasters.

Babiak concludes his article, by writing, “In all our current excitement about change, we should notice what the parties ignore. We may not know what we’re voting to abandon until it’s gone.”
In respect (or lack thereof) of the CBC, earlier in the week Tory hopeful Joe Spina, a two-term MPP under Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, stated he wants funding for the CBC switched off, saying it serves as a mouthpiece for the federal Liberals. In addition, Spina told the Toronto Star’s Caroline Mallan …

“Where I have a problem with the CBC is where it competes for audiences in urban areas with other private radio and television … driving listeners away from the free market.”

Repeated polls have shown Canadians strongly approve of the mandate for the broadcaster, which receives approximately $1 billion in annual government funding to operate in both English and French.
Ex-Alliance Director Quits ‘Vacuous’ Tories
Barry Yeates, ex-director of political operations for the Canadian Alliance — the predecessor of the ‘new’ Conservative Party — is the latest prominent Tory to throw his support behind the Liberals.
In an open letter Friday to news editors, Yeates writes: “I find myself increasingly apprehensive of the vacuous platform and social conservative agenda now being purveyed by the newly formed Conservative party.”

“I think the views expressed by a number of Conservative candidates and party officials, on topics as diverse as abortion, sexual orientation, bilingualism and immigration verge on intolerant. I am therefore deeply concerned about what a Stephen Harper government could mean for Canada.”

The Conservative leader said such attacks are the work of a Liberal party desperate to pull its campaign out of a swan dive.
But in an indication of the heightened emotions in the election campaign, as a huge crowd milled outside an Ottawa hall last night, waiting to get into a Harper rally, 15 young protesters held signs reading Don’t Mortgage Our Future and Respect Our Charter, shouting “Books Not Bombs.”
NDP Leader Shoots Down Missile Defence Programme
Is Stephen Harper a pro-American hawk? Maude Barlow, in an article published in the Globe and Mail, says she thinks so, writing that …

Harper has said that Canada’s traditional support for multilateralism is a “weak-nation strategy” and has called for Canada to replace the “soft power” of persuasive diplomacy and peacekeeping with the “hard power capabilities” of intelligence and military power in the service of continental security.

As for a reinvigorated NDP leader Jack Layton, he told a boisterous crowd attending a rally at a downtown Toronto church last night to lash out against the proposed U.S-led missile defence programme, saying it “will spark a dangerous new arms race and Canada should have no part of it.”
Responding to enthusiastic supporters, he vowed to make missile defence an election issue, denouncing the programme as “a costly, ill-conceived hold-over from the Cold War that will ultimately put weapons in space.”
Tory leader Stephen Harper has said his government would put to Parliament a decision on whether to participate in the U.S. initiative on Ballistic Missile Defence.
The Conservative platform advocates a combat-ready military force.
Tories aim for ‘smaller’ Canada, Martin says
In a vigorous, impassioned speech before the Women’s Executive Network, in Toronto on Friday, Prime Minister Paul Martin painted a sombre portrait of life under the Conservatives (RealPlayer required).
Martin expressed concern that Stephen Harper could eliminate the Departments of Citizenship and Immigration, as well as the Justice Department, the Heritage Department, and “then turn around and eliminate Industry, Foreign Affairs, Fisheries and Oceans, and Natural Resources.”
“Under a Liberal government, fundamental rights will not be open to negotiation,” he said.
Martin also said Harper would slash spending on social programmes to pay for lower taxes.

“We would be smaller within our own borders with diminished social services — a wearing away of fundamental rights and an erosion of our collective responsibility to those who need our help most.”

Martin was cheered when he again said he would defend a woman’s right to have an abortion.
Although it is not a part of the Tory platform, Harper has said he would allow a free vote on the issue if an MP introduced a private member’s bill.
A Sneak Peak At The Harper Cabinet
The Toronto Star’s David Olive speculates on what a Tory cabinet would look like:

• Stockwell Day, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Day and Harper co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed essay condemning Canada for failing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Bush Administration in its Iraqi adventure.
• Belinda Stronach, Minister of Labour. Stronach is former CEO of union-hostile Magna International Inc.
• Jason Kenney, Solicitor General. Kenney equates failure to oppose abortion with condoning slavery and child abuse.
• Vic Toews, Minister of Justice. Toews wants to repeal or substantially amend a law protecting gays and lesbians from hate crimes.
• Cheryl Gallant, Secretary of State with responsibility for Women’s Issues. Gallant recently equated abortion with the videotaped beheading of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg by Iraqi terrorists.
• Rob Merrifield, Minister of Health. Merrifield believes women opting for an abortion should first obtain counselling.
• Scott Reid, Minister of Multiculturalism. Reid wants to scale back government services for minority-language groups.
• Joe Spina, Minister of Culture and Heritage. Spina, former Ontario MPP under Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, now a Tory hopeful in the GTA riding of Vaughan, wants to eliminate funding for the “Communist Broadcasting Corporation.”
• Frank Luellau, Minister of State for Human Rights. In a Globe and Mail interview, the Tory candidate in the Ontario riding of Kitchener-Conestoga unburdened himself of his belief that “the biblical teaching is that [homosexuality] is not a natural kind of relationship. I think it is inappropriate for Christians, especially Christian leaders, to live that lifestyle.”

The worst part is, the joke Olive makes above could, in fact, become reality.
“We’re The Conservatives: We Don’t Believe In A Free Press”
Supporters of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper repeatedly heckled Parliamentary Press Gallery reporters today, at a Harper press conference held in Brampton, Ontario.
Both CBC reporter Jennifer Ditchburn and Vancouver Sun reporter Peter O’Neil were jeered when asking a question on gay rights, as was Toronto Star reporter Tonda MacCharles when she asked Harper to again “clarify exactly your answer to the question about whether you recognize the ability of courts to read into the Charter, (to) … interpret the Charter to include sexual orientation under the equality rights guarantee?”
Audible groans could be heard from the crowd.
“This is very pleasant being heckled at a news conference,” MacCharles said before Harper answered.
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.