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ST-HYACINTHE, Que. - Gilles Duceppe took dead aim at the prime minister in a mud-slinging address Sunday, stepping up his drive to prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority.

Speaking to some 2,000 boisterous supporters at a rally, the Bloc Quebecois leader called Stephen Harper a man without morals, a "liar" and a "cheater."

Duceppe said Harper wants to destroy the environment, step on women's rights and dismantle the gun registry.

He reminded the crowd that large segments of a 2003 Harper speech he gave in the House of Commons had been cribbed directly from then-Australian prime minister John Howard.

"I didn't make up the fact that he copied John Howard's speech word for word," the Bloc leader told reporters after the event. "He copied it, it's cheating."

In his speech, he also tried to stir anger in the province over the Tory government's funding cuts to arts and culture.

"For a francophone nation like ours, the arts are fundamental ... Quebec's creativity is not like Stephen Harper's speeches - we cannot copy it," Duceppe told the crowd in St-Hyacinthe, Que., east of Montreal.

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Originally posted by brookmere:
[QB]

Over to you, Jack.[/Q]

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MONTREAL - NDP Leader Jack Layton is making a blatant pitch to Quebec voters, asking them to turn their backs on the parties they support and cast their ballots for the New Democrats.

He says his party not only shares the values of Quebecers, but can kick Stephen Harper out of the prime minister's office.

Layton says even voters who supported other parties like the Bloc Quebecois in the past will feel "comfortable" with the NDP.

With only 12 days remaining until election day Oct. 14, polls suggest Prime Minister Stephen Harper holds a comfortable lead over the second-place Liberals - but likely not enough of an edge to produce a majority government.

Layton is also praising Green leader Elizabeth May's performance in the televised leaders' debates, saying he thoroughly enjoyed her contributions to the heated discussion.

Layton woos Quebec with pitch to kick Harper out

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But I doubt most voters in ridings where the Bloc stands the best chance will dare to go NDP. The exception is heavily Bloc ridings where the NDP might even come second, such as my current one! (Rosemont/La-Petite-Patrie).

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Originally posted by janfromthebruce:
good for Jack. I noticed during the debate that Jack and May both supported each other at different times, and that he helped her off the stage at the end of the debate. I perceived that it was genuine warmth.

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Originally posted by Kinetix:

As I understand it, he took that moment of proximity to quietly give her rabies. The next week is going to be very interesting.

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Originally posted by Kinetix:

As I understand it, he took that moment of proximity to quietly give her rabies. The next week is going to be very interesting.

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[ 06 October 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

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Originally posted by lagatta:
But I doubt most voters in ridings where the Bloc stands the best chance will dare to go NDP. The exception is heavily Bloc ridings where the NDP might even come second, such as my current one! (Rosemont/La-Petite-Patrie).

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Hard to say. Marlene Jennings (Liberal) lashing out at the NDP over a rather silly point about language would indicate that NDP is a threat.

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Originally posted by NorthReport:

If this is supposed to be some kind of attempt at humour, it's lost on me. Perhaps you would like to explain yourself.

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Originally posted by West Coast Greeny:

Referring to the occaisional hostility between the New Democrats and Greens here.

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Well I think we need to take Jack's lead here.

http://tinyurl.com/4cx27c

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A Bloc Québécois candidate has apologized for describing the Liberal's Green Shift proposed environmental policy as "un plan de nègre" ... André Côté, running in mainly rural Beauce riding, south of Quebec City, used the phrase Thursday during a round-table discussion with his fellow candidates on Beauce radio station CHEQ-FM. During the discussion, Green Party candidate Nicolas Rochette said the term could be seen as racist ...

The term - which translates as "a n---er plan" - is an old Acadian expression, defined in the University of Moncton's online Acadian glossary as "un plan irréalisable" - an unachievable plan. (The word "n---er" is labeled "racist" in the Larousse dictionary and "pejorative" in the Robert Québécoise dictionary.)

Contacted at his campaign office in St. Georges de Beauce, and told about it being described as a racist term, Côté excused himself ..."It's in my dictionary of Quebec expressions," he said but agreed "it is very pejorative ... If I hurt anybody, I apologize profusely," he told a reporter, adding, "Any harm that I caused was inadvertent ..."

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