Under fire, Harper defines ‘old stock Canadians’

“The switch voters are between those two parties, and they are going to go at each other”, said Ipsos Public Affairs pollster John Wright. And, if you looked closely, Mr. Mulcair’s tie did have a hint of orange – a pattern of flower-like circles with orange centres.

You remember that movie, starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton?

“I’ve never said things were great”, he said. As that flick’s narrator also boldly asserted, ” I felt like destroying something handsome “.

“I haven’t added up the time, but I can tell you this: this was an opportunity tonight for Canadians across the country to compare and contrast”, he said. People who apply for asylum upon arriving in Canada are known as refugee claimants while their applications are being decided.

Back to the debate, which was not entirely without its merits.

Mulcair, standing in the middle between Harper to his left and Trudeau to his right, responded. Every one of them was considered by the party executive as extreme in one way or another: imposing various restrictions on immigrants, settlement in remote regions, demands for “ethnic balance”, the deportation of immigrants with criminal convictions, etc. None of them made it to the convention floor, replaced by the Party Policy Committee with three more moderate ones.

Any objective objective, observer would have to conclude that he sounded more ready to lead a government than his younger, less experienced and faster talking counterpart.

Their target, Trudeau, attempted to send his own message, staging a solo, sunrise canoe ride in Calgary, evoking memories of his father, Pierre, that Liberals quickly turned into a saccharine online ad.

So much so, we’ve compiled a list of nine economic issues Canada’s federal leaders forgot to talk about. Even if his party was in third place with no prospect of winning a confidence vote in Parliament, Stephen Harper could try to remain in power without facing Parliament for a period of up to a year, or to call a do-over election.

That’s no small accomplishment, given the debate’s limited focus and its at times unlistenable interactions. “Mr. Mulcair, you actually are the only leader in Canadian history to have gone to another country, you and your colleagues, to the United States to argue against Canadian jobs and against Canadian development projects”. Trudeau asked in his opening remarks, addressing the camera directly.

But the Conservative leader defended his record as prime minister.

The kitchen-table conversation about mounting family debt found its way into the leaders’ debate Thursday as three political rivals staked out their different positions on Canada’s over-extended households.

Few Canadians likely watched the debate.

John Oakley doesn’t think there was any clear leader out of last night’s chat. We shall see. He defended the plan, saying Canada has experienced low growth for almost a decade under Mr. Harper. Unlike last month’s debate, Green Party leader Elizabeth May was not included. “It helps the seniors who need it most”.

Harper: “That’s a decision for people to make themselves”. And the Governor General would have no reason to deviate from the most-seats-first principle in recognizing a successor, since he could anticipate that the new prime minister would win the confidence of the House.

Research and innovation has been identified by several stakeholders in Canada’s agriculture industry as one of the “key” election issues for their sector in the campaign.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair took turns throughout the televised leaders’ debate criticizing the Liberal plan to run three years of deficits to pay for everything from infrastructure to transit to pension plans.