Race gets tight as final week of campaign begins

OTTAWA—The Conservatives are maintaining a steady-as-she-goes approach to the economy through the final full week in the federal election campaign—despite polling numbers that suggest voters want something more.
With just eight days of campaigning left, Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson said his firm’s latest survey results indicate voters are looking for a plan to see Canada through the worsening economic storm that’s moving up from the United States.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll suggests the Conservatives have dipped to 34 percent support—a far cry from their campaign peak of 41 percent and not enough to win a majority.
But a senior Tory spokesman indicated the prime minister won’t spring any new, last-minute economic plan on Canadians when he unveils his party’s platform tomorrow.
The Liberals, at 24 percent support, continued to lag well behind the Conservatives but have been trending upward in recent days as they push a message critical of Harper’s don’t-panic response to the escalating economic turmoil.
Jack Layton, with his New Democrats polling at 20 percent support, began a shift in his campaign today with new television ads directed at the Liberals—accusing party leader Stephane Dion of running a confused campaign.
The Liberals also are training their guns on the other opposition parties, with star candidate Bob Rae warning that Layton and Green Party leader Elizabeth May risk returning the Conservatives to power by syphoning off votes from the Liberals.
The Greens were at 13 percent in the survey while the Bloc Quebecois had eight percent nationally, and was leading in Quebec with 33 percent.
Dion took his message yesterday to Iqaluit in Canada’s Far North, promising a Liberal government would protect Arctic identity and sovereignty.
“I want to show that Canadians are the best custodians of the north, the best custodians of the Arctic, and then our sovereignty of the Arctic will be recognized by the world,” Dion told a small crowd gathered at a dock.
A Liberal government would reinstate an ambassador for the north, and finish mapping the Arctic seabed by 2013 to strengthen northern sovereignty, he pledged.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, meanwhile, took dead aim at the prime minister in a mud-slinging address yesterday, stepping up his drive to prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority.
Speaking to some 2,000 boisterous supporters at a rally, Duceppe called Stephen Harper a man without morals, a liar, and a cheater. And he accused Harper of wanting to destroy the environment, step on women’s rights, and dismantle the gun registry.
A crime element was added to the election campaign over the weekend as more than two dozen homeowners with Liberal campaign signs on their lawns in two different Toronto ridings had their vehicles or homes vandalized.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett called the incidents shocking and disturbing as at least 14 homeowners in the midtown Toronto riding of St. Paul’s complained to police of having their brake lines either cut or damaged Friday night.
The Liberals said at least 11 other supporters also had their vehicles attacked on Saturday night in the west-end riding of Parkdale-High Park.