Justin Trudeau sells three-point election pitch for 2015 campaign

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has launched the second half of the election campaign with a streamlined appeal to the middle class and a pointed kick at his political appointments.

Thestar.com
Sept. 7, 2015
By Bruce Campion-Smith

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau jumped into the second half of the federal election with a streamlined appeal to the middle class, a pointed kick at this political opponents and the promise of ramped-up electioneering in coming weeks.

At a campaign stop in Mississauga Monday, Trudeau unveiled a new branding of the party’s key pledges so far, wrapping them in a simplified three-point plan that he hopes will connect with voters and deliver a victory for Liberal candidates on Oct. 19.

“The Liberal party has made the decision to invest in our own future,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau’s “three-point” campaign pitch highlights the Liberal plan to almost double infrastructure spending by adding $60 billion over the next decade, even though it will mean three years of deficits.

The Liberals have also promised to deliver a tax beak to the middle class at the expense of the wealthy who will see their taxes hiked.

And the party has vowed new spending, like enhanced child benefit payments and investments in affordable housing, to help those less well off.

“Our plan is a plan focused on growth, on investing in Canada,” he said.

Trudeau hit the economic theme Monday, attacking Conservative Leader Stephen Harper for mismanaging the economy and warning that NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair would do little better.

He said that Mulcair - who has vowed that an NDP government would not run a deficit - has signed on to Harper’s budget plan to balance the books, “no matter the cost to Canadians.”

Trudeau charged that the federal government budget is currently running a deficit and, because of that, balancing the books quickly will mean “austerity” and “billions” of dollars in cuts.

“That’s not going to help you get to work on time. That’s not going to help you get better health care. That’s not going to create jobs,” Trudeau said.

“Canadians are smart enough to do the math. They know you can’t be Tommy Douglas on Stephen Harper’s budget,” Trudeau said, referring to the founding father of the NDP, known for creating Canada’s health care system.

Andrew Thomson, the NDP candidate in Eglinton-Lawrence, jabbed back at Trudeau, saying the Liberal tax plan falls short of helping those who need help the most. “His budget plan will mean billions of dollars in new debts and billions slashed from the budget,” Thomson said in a statement.

Trudeau denied that he was talking down the economy by his repeated insistence that Canada was in a recession. Instead, he said he was taking his cue from recent financial data that showed below-zero growth for the first two quarters of 2015.

“We are in a recession right now; ... we need to grow the economy once again. Stephen Harper has the worst record of any prime minister in 80 years,” Trudeau said.

As Canadians marked Labour Day on Monday, Trudeau was asked about the Liberals’ appeal to unionized labour. He said the Liberal party would work with labour and said a Liberal government would repeal the Conservatives’ “unfair” attacks on labour unions.

He said these include bills C-377, which imposes new financial disclosure requirements on unions, and C-525, which makes it harder to certify a union. However, New Democrats were quick to note that when Bill C-377 came up for a final vote in the Commons, Trudeau didn’t vote on the legislation.

Trudeau kicked off this week’s campaign at an event at Toronto Pearson International Airport, where he unveiled his campaign plane, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Air Transat.

He was joined by a crowd of supporters and Toronto-area Liberal candidates, including several such as Omar Alghabra (Mississauga Centre) and Navdeep Bains (Mississauga-Malton) who were defeated in 2011 and are hoping to make a political comeback.

The introduction of the campaign jet marks a new phase and the Liberals are expected to pick up the pace of their travels as the weeks tick down to election day. The New Democrats are also expected to unveil their jet in the coming days. The Conservatives have been using a jet for several weeks now.

The 78-day election kicked off on Aug. 2, which will make it one of the longest and costliest in Canadian history.

Indeed, if this campaign had followed the example of recent, shorter campaigns, Monday would have been election day. Instead, Labour Day marked only the midway point of a campaign that still has six weeks, potentially four debates and countless kilometres criss-crossing the country yet to go.

But Trudeau said the long duration has its upside: more time to connect with voters.

“We’ve taken advantage of every single day we’ve been able to get out and talk to Canadians about our plan for growth and jobs,” Trudeau said.

“One of the few advantages of a long election campaign is that Canadians get a lot of opportunities to hear about the different plans that the political parties are putting forward for the future of this country,” he said.

Trudeau ended his day in Prince Edward Island, in his first visit to the Atlantic Canada province during this campaign.

The Liberal leader held a rally in Summerside, in the riding of Egmont, a riding held by Conservative Gail Shea, the minister of national revenue. Robert Morrissey, a long-time provincial politician who held several cabinet positions, is running for the Liberals in the riding.