Canadian Election Watch - Day 12

Let me start with this headline: Infant with listeriosis dies in Manitoba

Stephen Harper not only refused calls for agriculture minister Gerry Ritz to resign on Thursday, following the leak of his gallows humour jokes about the listeriosis crisis, the prime minister also chose to defend Ritz saying he made the remarks during a "private conversation" and that most people make insensitive comments during such circumstances. How Steve can characterize a conference call with professionals form various fields as a "private conversation" is beyond me and to stick up for a man who so crudely insulted the victims, some of whose family members are now publicly expressing anger about the revelations, is just beyond the pale.

As if that mini-scandal wasn't enough to rightly embarrass the Cons, it was also revealed on Thursday that a Tory aide made a racist remark about aboriginals' drinking. Every election season another racist Tory is outed.

CNEWS has a running list of apologies made since this campaign began - all from the Conservatives. The CBC goes a step further with a trip down memory lane showing some golden oldie Tory gaffes. Who can forget this one? "Dalton McGuinty. He’s an evil reptilian kitten eater from another planet. (Sorry.)"

The NDP had its own embarrassing incident on Thursday when it turfed a Vancouver candidate who used founded a store that sold some seeds "in the grey area of legalities", including cocoa.

Campaigning in Ontario, NDP Leader Jack Layton couldn't explain why the party didn't vet the candidate more thoroughly.
[...]
Larsen was a candidate for the federal Marijuana party in 2000 and a founding member of the B.C. Marijuana party. He opened the Vancouver Seed Bank in May 2006.

He's also a founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine and the author of the Pot Puzzle Fun Book and the novel Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone.

A d'oh in the headlights moment.

Here's a roundup of today's party promises:

- Dion plans to spend $10 billion over the next 10 years on infrastructure.

- You'd be hard-pressed to find what Steve was out there promising in this story as he was in Quebec on Thursday. The only mention of his party's platform appears in a caption under a photo of Steve on the left:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he would cut the tax that about 40,000 Canadian senior citizens pay on payments they receive from U.S. social security.

He also promised a small tax cut for seniors - a huge insult considering how the income trust scandal has impacted so many of them.

He's also trying to court les Quebcois with a promise for $25 million in funding for French-language teevee. How about canceling that $44.8 million funding cut to the arts, Steve, or do you think teevee is art enough?

- Elizabeth May was out promoting the Green Party agenda which was released on Wednesday and she got a bit of good news from a new poll showing a slight gain for the Greens.

- Meanwhile, Gilles Duceppe wants to set up an independent Employment Insurance commission.

- Jack Layton announced his plan spend $1 billion on a new home care program.

That's it for now since crackers and Gravol™ are currently on the menu for me.

Related:

Afghan war costs $22B, so far: study