Day 30 so far: infomercials and tax credits

Word this morning was that Michael Ignatieff stopped in at a Mississauga hockey game last night at the invitation of the mayor and got booed when he waved on the Jumbotron. Awww. Mind you, any politician would be booed at a hockey game, so it’s not necessarily a reflection on Ignatieff personally. And some accounts said he got cheers, too.

Later, Ignatieff had a paid 30-minute infomercial on broadcast television, which was called “Michael Ignatieff’s Town Hall for Canada.” It was largely a compilation of Liberal advertising cut with clips from previous town hall meetings and rallies, and showed much better production values than those we’ve seen. It was certainly a way of getting the messages out to those who haven’t seen them.

Meanwhile, at a suburban locale in Victoria, BC, Harper delivered a pretty standard stump speech. He read from a binder on a music stand and used a wired mic, rather than his now-standard teleprompter and wireless lapel mics. His pitch of the day was a reannouncement of his $500 children’s arts tax credit (30 cents a day for piano lessons). When he took questions from the media – who had this vantage point – first up was the CBC’s Terry Milewski, who asked about Conservative candidate Wei Young and the endorsement of an Air India bombing backer (the candidate put out a statement, and we accept it); the acts of vandalism against Liberals (we suffer acts of vandalism too, this is a democracy); the question of trusting him (we’ve been focused on the economy, we have a record to prove it, and the other parties forced an election and haven’t given clear reasons for it – because contempt of Parliament and loss of confidence in the government apparently didn’t happen); how he can claim he’ll get savings from civil service attrition when the numbers don’t add up (the budget is clear, and we will achieve balance in 2015); the battleground for NDP seats (we know in BC that’s the battle, and we’re the only party capable of forming a strong, national majority); and students getting thrown out of rallies while he refuses to meet with a group down the road (we’ve had strong student representation at all rallies and meetings, and the Canada Social Transfer is protected in our plans).

Jack Layton held a photo op at a Toronto-area church and will be at the Khalsa Day parade in Toronto along with Michael Ignatieff and Jason Kenney later today. He isn’t holding any other media availabilities.

 

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