Canadian election goes down to wire
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Paul Martin, on the final day of campaigning, embarked on a grueling coast-to-coast trek Sunday in a bid to stave off defeat for his vulnerable Liberal Party in what could be one of Canada’s closest elections.
Martin, in his first election after succeeding Jean Chretien last year, has conceded that the Liberals are likely to lose their majority in Parliament. He hopes at least to win more seats than the resurgent Conservative Party in Monday’s national election, and thus extend the Liberals’ 11-year hold on power as head of a minority government.
Signaling his concern, Martin scrapped a planned low-key schedule for Sunday and instead arranged a last-minute marathon taking him from Nova Scotia on the Atlantic Coast to British Columbia on the Pacific — with stops in Quebec and Manitoba.
“We’ve seen a lot of polls in this campaign and they’re telling us one thing,” he said in Nova Scotia. “This is going down to the wire.”
The polls show a virtual tie between the Liberals and Conservatives, with neither likely to win a clear majority in the 308-seat House of Commons. Whichever gets the most seats would try to form a minority government — the first in Canada since 1979.
Unless the Liberals and Conservatives choose to cooperate, the balance of power would rest with the left-wing New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc advocates independence for Quebec and is expected to win most of the 75 seats from the French-speaking province.
The Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, who had only two appearances scheduled Sunday in his home province of Alberta, said Martin’s cross-country journey conveyed desperation.
“This is just panic, when you start pulling up your travel schedule and flying all over the country,” Harper said. “He’s confusing movement with momentum.”
Harper has said that if the Conservatives head a minority government, he would seek support from the smaller parties on a vote-to-vote basis rather than cut deals that would bring them into a formal coalition.
He contended that the Liberals would do otherwise, negotiating for ongoing support from the New Democrats — who favor big increases in social spending — and the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
“Isn’t that wonderful,” jibed Harper. “Corruption, taxation and separation all in one administration.”
Alleged government corruption has been a major campaign issue. The Liberals were hurt by revelations that tens of millions of dollars in federal funds were improperly channeled to pro-government advertising companies in Quebec in the 1990s.
Andre Pratte, chief editorial writer for the Montreal daily La Presse, contended that the Liberals underestimated the toll that various financial scandals had taken.
“Elected officials must take responsibility for such failures,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the Liberals — convinced they are invincible and the only ones suited to govern Canada — tended to minimize them.”
Several analysts have suggested that a minority government — although inherently unstable — might have some positive aspects, regardless of whether the Liberals or Conservatives are the nominal leaders.
“The result is going to be a mess,” wrote columnist Richard Gwyn in Sunday’s Toronto Star. “And yet this mess could turn out to be a creative one.”