With polls suggesting Canada is headed towards another minority government, party leaders criss-crossed the country Monday, hoping to sway as many undecided voters as possible.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper went east to west, starting his tour in P.E.I. and ending the day on the Pacific Coast, where he gave a speech to supporters in Vancouver.
"In this election, our party is the only one running on a strong record and a clear plan," said Harper. "It is a record and plan of lower taxes, support for children and families, and income splitting for our senior citizens.
"It is a record and a plan of cracking down on crime, rebuilding our military, and protecting our nation's sovereignty in the Arctic."
At the start of the day, in front of 600 people in Cornwall, P.E.I., Harper had warned supporters not to expect a victory.
"In this close election there is no guarantee we will win," he said in his Thanksgiving message.
"We need every seat we can get. We need every vote we can get and we need you to get out (and) finish the work you've been doing."
He also said he would "protect" Canada's economy in the face of a global credit crisis, while Liberal Leader Stephane Dion would "experiment" with the economy by imposing a carbon tax.
As part of his $15-billion Green Shift plan, Dion has promised to shift taxes through a carbon tax on pollution while cutting personal income taxes.
Harper was expected to end the day in British Columbia, to stop any last-minute surge by the New Democrats.
Leaders attack Harper
On Monday, Dion urged Canadians to "Go green, vote red" during a stop in Fredericton, N.B.
Dion said voters should support his party because the fight against climate change can't wait.
Later, Dion took the same message to Longueuil, Que., where he accused Harper of lying to Canadians.
"Never will he tell you the truth ... we can't believe him," he said, noting that the Tories have backed away from international climate change agreements.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe also had some tough talk for Harper, saying the Tory leader is not interested in anyone's opinion but his own.
His "ministers are 'yes men,'" Duceppe said.
"This is what I'm trying to explain, their first allegiance is to the leader and the party rather than Quebec."
Duceppe also appealed to Quebecers to do all they can to "stop Harper from getting a majority."
In recent weeks, the Tories appeared to have lost ground to the Bloc in Quebec, where the party was hoping to pick up seats in its drive to a majority government.
Antonia Maioni, a political scientist at McGill University, said Harper is unlikely to see his party's seats increase in Quebec.
"Part of the problem was that his support in Quebec was quite shallow and quite superficial," she said.
Maioni said Tory policies on the arts and young offenders have not been well received by Quebecers, which has allowed the Bloc to capitalize.
The NDP is also trying to make headway in the province after winning an upset byelection win there last fall.
NDP Leader Jack Layton told supporters on Monday the campaign has shown his party has strong support in all parts of the country, including Quebec.
"This has been a dream of our party founders from the beginning to be a party that could say with credibility that we're running for prime minister and we have representation in all parts of Canada," he told voters in southern Ontario.
Layton took aim at Harper, whose policies he said don't help Canadian families. He also attacked Dion for voting with the Tories in 43 parliamentary votes.
"Mr. Dion stood aside and let Mr. Harper do whatever he wanted. That's not leadership," Layton said.
Another minority government?
CTV's Tom Clark said the Liberals also transitioned during the campaign from a party pushing to form the next government to a party trying to stop Harper from getting a majority.
Dion has been appealing to voters on the left as the only person who can stop Harper, Clark told 愛污传媒net from Ottawa.
"That really became the pitch and that is going to be the pitch in the last 24 hours," he said.
According to the latest poll, conducted on Oct. 11 for CTV and The Globe and Mail, both the Tories and Liberals have seen their party's support drop slightly from the 2006 election results (difference in brackets):
- Conservative: 33 per cent (-2)
- Liberal: 28 per cent (-2)
- NDP: 18 per cent (none)
- Bloc Quebecois: 10 per cent (-1)
- Green Party: 11 per cent (+6)
"Polls suggest that we're looking at another minority and possibly not a whole lot different than the one we had before," Clark said.
Meanwhile, the party leaders said they'll continue to campaign until the very end in an effort to win over undecided voters.
Later Monday, Dion was expected to make stops in Winnipeg and Richmond, B.C.
Harper will head to an evening rally in Vancouver and Layton will remain in Ontario with stops in Oshawa, Etobicoke and Toronto.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was scheduled to spend her final day of campaigning in her Central Nova riding in Nova Scotia, where she is attempting to unseat Conservative incumbent Peter MacKay.
Where the parties stand
Before Parliament was dissolved in on Sept. 7, the Conservatives had 127 seats of a possible 308. In Ontario, they held 41 ridings; in Alberta, they had 28 -- every single seat in the province.
Harper needs to make strong gains in Quebec if he hopes for a majority government. Before the election call, he had 11 seats.
The Liberals had most of their seats in Ontario, where they held 51 of a possible 106 ridings. They were tied with the Tories in Quebec with 11 seats.
Layton's New Democrats had 12 seats in Ontario and 10 in British Columbia, where the party is traditionally seen as a strong opposition party to the Conservatives, rather than the Liberals.
The NDP also had 12 seats in Ontario, where Layton and his wife, Olivia Chow, both represent ridings.
The Bloc had 48 seats in Quebec out of a total 75.
Although May is campaigning in Central Nova, it's believed her party has its best chance at electing its first MP in the Ontario riding of Guelph. Before the election, the Greens had one riding, located in B.C., and it was one by an MP under the Liberal banner.
With files from The Canadian Press
