Week 1 Recap: A Stark Contrast on Display

This past week we saw two different visions and philosophies on display. The contrast between Liberals and Conservatives was made very clear. From the first week we know Canadians will be choosing between:
- A bold economic and environmental plan that will meaningfully endorse our greenhouse gas reductions and move our economy forward (as all the major economists and environmentalists agree) and an excellent plan to help Canadians retrofit their homes versus a weak environmental plan panned by every major independent group (see here, here, here, here) along with a proposal that encourages more greenhouse gas production and won’t save Canadians money..
- Responsible economic management to clean up the financial mess left behind by Conservatives versus reckless spending to the brink of the deficit and no plan to deal with the current troubles of our economy.
- Modernizing our immigration system our immigration system while keeping it fair and accessible to immigrants across the world more versus a Conservative plan that picks favourites among immigrants and treats them as economic units while giving unprecedented power to a single minister.
- Responsibly following a recommendation of the coroner's report on the Dawson’s College tragedy by banning military assault weapons versus needlessly leaving them available even though these weapons would never be used for hunting.
- Helping to protect the rights of minority groups versus gleefully cutting funding to programs that help them.
- Standing up for Aboriginal rights versus opposing an international treaty to recognize them.
- Improving our food safety system versus a government whose Health Minister mocked the Listorosis crisis from abroad while the crisis was ongoing.
- A real plan to deal with the rising price of gas by restoring the federal Office of Petroleum Price Information and strengthen the enforcement tools in the Competition Bureau to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour versus no meaningful Conservative plan.
- Standing up for gender equality with a Commissioner of Gender Equality, increased funding to Status of Women and walking the walk on running female candidates versus a party that doesn’t care about having more women in power and has cut funding and weakened status of women
- Standing up to ensure all the major party leaders to be heard in the debates versus opposing it until you are left standing alone.
- A party that wages a campaign based on facts and proposing a positive vision versus a party whose is campaign is based on lies and childish attacks.

There will be much more in weeks to come, but we must continue to work harder to get this message through to Canadians. We have the plan, the leader, and the team to provide a government Canadians would be proud of. By contrast, Stephen Harper’s conduct as Prime Minister and in this campaign gives us little to have much pride about. A dishonest man with no plan to tackle the challenges this country faces does not deserve another term and only one leader can replace him on October 14th. This upcoming week we will need to step up that message so Canadians come to realize before Election Day that the Liberal Party is clearly the best choice to move this country forward and govern on behalf of all Canadians.

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