Pubdate: Thu, 15 Oct 2015
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Stephanie Levitz
Page: 15

CONSERVATIVE ETHNIC ADS DRAW IRE

BRANTFORD, Ont. - His opponents call it fear mongering, but 
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says what he's trying to do in 
drawing attention to his interpretation of the Liberals' election 
platform is present Canadians with the facts.

 From a series of ads in the ethnic media saying Justin Trudeau will 
put brothels in neighbourhoods to a repeated statement they'd cancel 
pension income splitting for seniors, the Conservatives have come 
under fire from their opponents this week.

"I think the choice before Canadians is a serious choice of two very 
different directions for the country," Harper said at a campaign 
event in Brantford, Ont.

"The other guys will claim it's fear when all we are trying to do is 
draw attention to facts, facts that they are actually not willing to 
talk about."

The Liberals accuse the Conservatives of playing with those facts. 
Nowhere in their platform is there a pledge to create brothels, nor 
as Harper claimed Wednesday, will the Liberals definitely cancel 
pension income splitting for seniors.

The Conservatives base the brothel assertion on the fact the Liberals 
voted against the Conservatives' law that criminalizes the buying of 
sex, a law passed in response to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling 
that prior anti-prostitution laws violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Conservatives say that because doing nothing in response to that 
ruling would have legalized prostitution, and because Trudeau did not 
propose a law of his own, he de facto supports legalizing prostitution.

On pension income splitting, Trudeau has repeatedly said that's not 
on the table amidst all the other potential repeals a Liberal 
government may do of previous Conservative policies.

The Conservatives argue their statement is based in part on the 
Liberals' 2007 vote against pension income splitting, which was a 
policy buried in an omnibus budget bill the Liberals voted down, and 
that they're going to have to find the money for their promises from somewhere.

"Stephen Harper is desperate to change the channel from his 10 failed 
years," the Liberal campaign said in a statement. "It's the only 
reason he's playing the politics of fear and spreading falsehoods 
about the Liberal plan."

Among the other claims Harper is making is that the Liberals would 
allow marijuana to be sold in corner stores; while that party has 
said it wants to legalize the drug, the specifics have not been determined.

The Conservatives are vehemently opposed to legalizing marijuana, so 
some eyebrows were raised Wednesday when Doug Ford, the former 
Toronto city councillor who has admitted smoking marijuana, let it be 
known he would organize a rally for Harper later this week.

It follows comments from Ford at an event in west-end Toronto that he 
could easily rally thousands of people for Harper. Ford's brother Rob 
admitted to smoking crack cocaine while he served as Toronto's mayor.

Harper didn't address the seeming irony of his campaign getting 
support from two admitted drug users. "I think our position on these 
issues is very well-known and the support we've had from those 
individuals for our party is long-standing," he said.

Harper was campaigning in the heart of southwestern Ontario, where 
the Conservatives are still considered front-runners in some of the 
more rural ridings despite a concerted push by the NDP and the Liberals.

Later Wednesday, he returned to the Toronto area for a rally in 
Brampton, Ont., a city with a large South Asian population.

Punjabi papers in that community have also been the recipients of 
Conservative party ads about Trudeau's policies on drugs, 
prostitution and safe injection sites.

The Conservatives position the issues as value questions, an effort 
to keep some in ethnic communities from going back to casting a 
ballot for the Liberals, as many did for decades before the 
Conservatives stepped up their ethnic outreach game. "New Canadians 
from India, from South Asia, have also found this Conservative 
government respects your values," Harper said Wednesday night at an 
event organized by the Canada India Friendship Group.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom