Protests welcome Dion in Newmarket-Aurora and elsewhere in the area.

It was a pretty good day in Newmarket-Aurora for the Conservative Party today. Stephane Dion visited the Magna Center in Newmarket and was greeted by a sea of blue signs and some protesters who showed up opposing the carbon tax and Dion's lack of leadership. In Orillia earlier, a green party sign popped up during his speech. Not a good day for Dion on this final day of campaigning. Today's polls likely made his day even worse. This will now come down to who is better at getting out the vote, the conversations that occur at the Thanksgiving dinner table and momentum that the Conservatives have regained locally and nationally.

Newmarket-Aurora is a crucial Ontario 905 GTA swing riding that both the Liberals and Conservatives are targeting. The seat has no incumbant as Belinda Stronach has retired from politics and now the race is between former Aurora mayor Tim Jones and Conservative national councilor and small business owner Lois Brown. Today is likely the final day of campaigning as tomorrow and Monday people do not want to have their Thanksgiving holiday disturbed by politicians asking for their vote. A bad national rally for Dion was a good way to conclude the campaign today for Harper and Lois Brown today. Liberal morale is down.

Our vote has been identified and the results are looking positive compared to previous elections in 2004 and 2006. Internal polls look good. National polls are increasing for Conservatives in the final days and the Star reported Harper is leading in the 905. I am confident this riding will go blue on Tuesday, but we will be working the whole day on Tuesday to make sure it happens. Every vote is crucial and Tuesday we have do complete the final sprint and get that vote out for Lois and the Conservative Party nationally.

Update 3: The scene inside the Magna Centre with Dion. What is with the face paint and feathers?

Update 2: Local supporter gets an image of Dion's bus leaving Newmarket with Lois Brown signs all along Muluck St. Not the welcome into Newmarket-Aurora that Mr. Dion was expecting I am sure.

Update: On CTV, I also caught protests at Dion's speech in Vaughn where Liberals won last time by 20,000 votes. Images in York Region today of small crowds and growing Conservative support in the crucial GTA\905 area cannot be great optics for the rest of the Liberal campaign nationally. We now stop campaigning for Thanksgiving day, and vote on Tuesday. Leader tours are all about optics in the media. They show momentum and impact the local race. Today we saw no momentum for Dion in the suburbs including in safe ridings. If signs could vote, Lois Brown would be in Ottawa right now. Hopefully on Tuesday that will become a reality as is now projected according to most polls and sites such as electionprediction.org. Dion today said he would not implement much of his campaign promises with the exception of the green shaft for years. That is not acceptable during these challenging economic times and it further demonstrates the weak leadership of Stephane Dion.

...and seriously, what was with the "leather caps and feather boas, with the Liberal leader’s surname painted on their faces"? Bringing Dion here was a risk that did not pay off for Liberals today. Hopefully this plays well in the papers and television media tomorrow. It is unlikely to be covered by either of our local papers prior to election day due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
-Darryl

Blog Coverage from MacLeans, Toronto Star and Others:

More with Dion from Magna-land

Think about this: a Parliament with Belinda Stronach or without. Which is the boring choice? I mean, is Bill Clinton going to go out with Diane Finley? (I pick her only because she's married.) Ms. Stronach certainly added a certain je ne sais quoi to Parliament while she dabbled in politics. In Newmarket, she told my colleague Les Whittington she has one more day as MP (not sure how that works) for Newmarket-Aurora. She will be missed. Plus, she has set a strong example for women by speaking out about breast cancer.

Stronach greeted Stéphane Dion an hour ago at a four-plex sports centre in Newmarket, funded with Magna Corporation money. Wow, four rinks, a couple of pools. My dad used a hose in the backyard. (Oh, and that reference to not having a mortgage in a previous post. It's because I don't have a house.) As Dion got off his bus, teenaged cheerleaders in feathers and sequins began a series of tinny chants. Weird. Even weirder, they were almost drowned out by a small knot of protesters across the street yelling, "No Dion."

Stay tuned.

http://thestar.blogs.com/decoder/

The Final Days: Newmarket

This afternoon’s stop at a rather palatial community centre north of Toronto included guest appearances by Belinda Stronach and, traveling separately, a dozen protesters carrying signs upon which were written slogans that corresponded neatly with Conservative party talking points. One wore a poorly fitting hockey jersey. Another insisted on holding his sign upside down (better to express his objection to the carbon tax perhaps).

Mr. Dion and the local candidate strolled around the community centre, flanked by two young girls sporting leather caps and feather boas, with the Liberal leader’s surname painted on their faces. The two politicians talked hockey while overlooking an ice rink, then stopped to pick up some popcorn from the refreshment stand. In keeping with his commitment to a proper social safety net, Mr. Dion gave his to a group of children.

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/10/11/the-final-days-newmarket/

***

Blogging from the Dion bus

I'm disappointed. On the Dion bus, the Liberal staffers don't have little mics in their collars and talk into them like RCMP - or like Conservative handlers with Stephen Harper. I had wanted to see political staffers put on the intel thing, but I guess I'll have to settle with civilians just acting like civilians. The Conservatives do sound cool. They must be very important people. I think baggage handlers need high-tech gizmos.

Dion is buoyant as we tootle through southern Ontario, urging a Saturday crowd in Orillia they've got to send Liberal candidates (Simcoe North and Barrie) because the only way to stop Harper is to vote Liberal - not NDP or Green. What an amazing day for wandering around a farmer's market; problem is, that's not how campaigns work. You rush through watching the candidate shake hands and pose for pix and rush back to the bus. Janine Krieber, Dion's wife, sometimes gets squashed back in the crowd but she's arm-in-arm with their daughter, Jeanne, 20, who's on the campaign for the final push.

Got to say, though, the mood among Liberal operatives - not necessarily on the bus - is hardly euphoric this weekend. The weekend polls have started to put the Conservatives around 8 points ahead and with the wind back in their sails, it looks like an impossible feat for Liberals to do as well as some were hoping last Monday or Tuesday. A starry-eyed little moment of optimism. Guess that bump in the polls was an illusion, If the Conservatives keep pushing the fear button - the economy will go to hell under Dion, higher taxes, etc. - Libs are worried about what they can do over this holiday weekend. The m-word has slipped back into the mouths of some Liberals. They're not talking about a Conservative minority. And, even though three days is a long time in politics, Liberals think of all those families sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and giving Harper a little holiday bump, just as they did at Christmas, 2005.

http://thestar.blogs.com/decoder/

***

Dion says economy will slow pace of his platform

During a whistle stop in Aurora, Ont., retiring MP Belinda Stronach said Dion's decision to tilt upfront spending in the platform to create jobs is necessary because the Conservatives "squandered" the $12 billion surplus they inherited from the Liberals and "circumstances are changing very rapidly."

"We have no choice but to juggle priorities or it's on the back of future generations," Stronach told reporters. "People must have employment, they must have good quality jobs to maintain our quality of life. We need to generate income so we have a good social safety net."

Dion stopped in the riding to boost the campaign of former mayor Tim Jones, the Liberal who hopes to succeed Stronach.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=a5df7367-e58f-402c-810e-f8dd0d3d837c

***

OTTAWA - Declaring several times that "I am not a quitter," Stephane Dion indicated Sunday he will not step down as Liberal leader if he loses the election that he says is "a choice between lies and honesty."

The Montreal MP emphasized his determination several times to reporters as he blitzed three Ontario ridings, calling on New Democrats and Greens to shift their votes to the Liberals and potentially elect enough MPs on Tuesday to defeat "the most secretive, very conservative government in history."

The only exception Dion made was in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, where the Liberals are not running a candidate against Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and are campaigning to help her defeat Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Falling short of a direct appeal for strategic voting, May hinted supporters should calculate their chances of defeating Conservatives by voting Liberal.

She said Greens could not alone put Liberals over the top in many ridings, but they should "vote accordingly."

Later in the day Dion made his strongest pitch yet for Green party supporters to vote for the Grits in Tuesday's election, saying he's been endorsed by a Nobel-Prize winning scientist as the only leader who will actually deal with climate change.

At a boisterous rally in the Ottawa riding of Orleans, Dion boasted that climate change scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria had endorsed him, that 250 economists are calling for a price on fossil fuels and that Green Party Leader Elizabeth May repeated again Sunday that she wants him to be prime minister.

"Elizabeth May and I can be counted on to level with Canadians," Dion pledged. "By coming together we can defeat Stephen Harper and give to Canada the greener prime minister you may have. So go green: vote red."

Dion appeared to misspeak slightly; he usually promises to be the "greenest" prime minister.

Dion called for the defeat of "the most secretive prime minister in Canadian history." Among the secrets he claimed Harper is keeping is the true cost of the government's proposed green plan. Harper said Saturday that the government plan would raise electricity costs by four per cent over a decade but Dion said "it must be much more than that."

Earlier Dion cited a call for Greens to vote Liberal by three Canadian scientists who shared in the 2007 Nobel Prize to former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Weaver, William Peltier and John Stone had issued a statement Saturday saying "Greens alone can help make the difference between the Harper majority that the climate scientists fear and a Liberal minority under which great progress can be made to fight climate change."

He said when so many economists and environmentalists agree with the principle behind the Liberal Green Shift plan "it's a large coalition far beyond usual partisan politics."

On the heels of Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying the Conservatives would look for a new leader if he fails to win the Tuesday vote, a feisty Dion told a Toronto TV interviewer: "Well he's a quitter; I'm not."

Dion, leading a national campaign for his first time, repeated his declaration in other encounters with reporters during a bus tour of ridings in Toronto, Norwood, Ont. and Ottawa.

And he'll conduct a final push Monday when Dion will travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Liberals announced they have dubbed Dion's campaign plane "Progress Air" to reflect his call for unity among all "progressive voters" and that he will travel from Fredericton, N.B. to Vancouver on Monday, with whistle stops in Montreal and Winnipeg before returning to his home riding in Montreal on election day.

At a rally in Toronto Dion urged New Democrats and Greens to vote Liberal - avoiding a three-way split of anti-government votes that would leave the Conservatives in office. The Liberals need the other two parties to block Harper's re-election, he said.

"This is only possible if we pull together."

"This election is a choice between lies and honesty," he told about 150 supporters gathered in a restaurant hall, referring to Harper's repeated claims the Liberals will raise taxes even though their platform promises across-the-board tax cuts through the Green Shift tax on fossil fuels.

"Stephen Harper built his campaign on a lie. He must lose on this lie."

Other lies the Liberals have cited during the campaign are the Conservative's false claim the Liberals would claw back the $100 monthly child care benefit when they are increasing it; and a false claim by the Conservatives that the Liberals would raise the GST, when Dion was on record for more than a year saying he would not do that.

The Liberal war room on Sunday challenged Harper's claim that he keeps his commitments, citing the government's flip-flop on taxation of income trusts, Harper's call for an election a year before the fixed election date, an alleged breach of the Atlantic accord, the lack of a promised national patient wait times guarantee and the appointment of an unelected senator.

Dion also professed to be single minded about winning the election, rather than casting ahead to a possible loss and what the Liberal party would want.

"I will say I am not a quitter but the only goal we have now in the next two days is to win this election," he said on CTV's Question Period program.

Responding to three friendly callers to a TV call-in show in Toronto, Dion vigorously defended his Green Shift plan to impose a tax on diesel and other fossil fuels and distribute the revenues in income tax cuts.

When asked what he has to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, Dion said his country, wife Janine Krieber and daughter Jeanne.

"I'm married to my wife and my country and she's nice enough, kind enough, to accept it," he added.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/decisioncanada/story.html?id=885cb067-c31e-4352-bd91-04355f01afdd