Mulcair, Harper take aim at Trudeau

Teneycke’s comments stand in contrast to NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, both of whom are talking about majorities.

“It is not up to government to support one project or another, it is up for a government to set the framework within which communities can choose, or not, to support a project”.

When news of the email emerged on Wednesday, the Trudeau campaign at first said Gagnier had done nothing wrong.

One marketing company has calculated that the majority of attack ads that have run on Canadian television during the campaign have been Conservative spots targeting Trudeau.

“His council has been helpful in guiding us on how best to communicate the benefits of the project to Canadians”, he said.

“He was telling Energy Easy how, when and who to lobby to get to Mr. Trudeau”, Mulcair told a pumped up audience at a late evening rally in Sherbrooke.

It remains to be seen whether the Gagnier revelations will affect Trudeau’s campaign, which recent polls have suggested has been building momentum.

The Liberals lead the Conservatives by nearly 6 percentage points.

Of particular interest to myself, as well as many others, was the fact that all three local candidates indicated that they (and their party) supported moving our current system of governance to a few form of proportional representation.

Trudeau said the relentless Conservative effort to say otherwise is evidence of that party’s willingness to go for a “low blow” because they can’t win a fair fight.

Harper, 56, a sharp strategic thinker and trained economist, campaigned on the economy but was hurt when Canada entered a mild recession in the first half of the year after oil prices tumbled.

Throughout the campaign, biased reporters have focused on petty Conservative scandals. Opposition leaders accused Harper of playing racial politics with an issue of little relevance to most Canadians. The photograph of the boy drew the world’s attention to the refugee crisis and hit home in Canada, where the toddler’s aunt lives. In French and then in English Harper repeated, “The culture of the Liberal party that gave us the sponsorship scandal has not changed and it will not change”. But analysts say the tall, trim 43-year-old is tapping into an appetite for change with an impressive campaign that has outflanked the New Democrats on the left.

While Harper has been in power since 2006, he has held a parliamentary majority only since 2011.

Liberals governed Canada for most of the last century. “That’s just completely irresponsible of the prime minister”. His son also has star power, though analysts say he lacks the intellectual heft of his father. The “them” is the anticipated new government.

“We ensured from the very beginning of our campaign that we were compliant with all rules and regulations involving consultants and people of that sort, across a spectrum”, he said at a campaign stop in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, where he was joined by former mayor Hazel McCallion.

The group is called “Vote Together” and they are asking Canadians to vote with the intention of defeating the Conservative Party.