October 3, 2015 by admin

Harper to make first trip of the campaign to Newfoundland and Labrador

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper is venturing into a lion’s den that is perhaps the least fertile electoral ground for him in Canada.
The Conservative leader is attending a rally today in the riding of Avalon in Newfoundland and Labrador — the event in Bay Roberts is Harper’s first foray into the province this election campaign.
Newfoundlanders have shown little electoral warmth toward Harper — in 2011 they elected only one Conservative MP.
The provincial Progressive Conservative government has been at times openly hostile toward Harper, with former premier Danny Williams actively campaigning against the federal Tories in 2008.
He had accused Harper of breaking a promise to protect offshore oil earnings from federal equalization funding clawbacks.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has a much more sedate day with an event in the community of Upton in the eastern townships of Quebec.
The community is in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, one of many that went to the New Democrats in the 2011 orange wave.
However, recent polls have suggested New Democrat support is softening in Quebec.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe attends a rally in Montreal while Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is taking part in a rally in Vancouver.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is off the campaign trail.
However, on Sunday he’ll attend what the party is promising will be the biggest rally of the campaign, at a hall in Brampton, Ont., that seats up to five-thousand people