TORONTO – The Reform party election strategy unveiled last weekend is a three-pronged plan to elevate the party to government, or at least national status.
Reform candidates will push a party platform that stresses law and order, tax cuts, massive spending cuts, a balanced budget by 1999, more accountability for politicians, repeal of gun control laws and more spending on health.
“In this election, Reformers must put much greater emphasis on encouraging Canadians to vote for something, rather than against something, and we must lead by example by making it clear what we are fighting for,” Reform leader Preston Manning told an April 26 party convention in Toronto, on the eve of the election call.
Read Also
U.S. loses out on sales of soybean to China
U.S. soybean exporters risk missing out on billions of dollars worth of sales to China this year as trade talks drag on and buyers in the top oilseed importer lock in cargoes from Brazil.
At the same time, Reform candidates will be challenging the government record.
They will argue the Liberals have not cut spending enough, have not balanced the books fast enough, have been soft on crime, have broken promises on taxes and integrity and have weakened, rather than strengthened, national unity by pandering to Quebec and promising it special status.
“I believe the proper conclusion is that the public, when they examine the government record, are going to be willing to look at new ideas and alternatives,” Manning told a news conference during the candidate convention.
And Reform candidates will be name-calling, accusing the Liberals and other opponents of being “liars” for their claims about Reform policies.
In the House of Commons, MPs are not allowed to call other people liars, even when they are, Manning told the troops. There are no such rules on the street and in the election campaign.
Expect the Liberals to resort to “every dirty device known to man” to salvage the election, said Manning. “False labels and lies are their tactics of last resort and we must be prepared to fight against them.”
He said Reform will be called racist for objecting to immigration and native policies. They will be called homophobic for supporting the traditional family unit. They will be called extremist for supporting tougher anti-crime laws and traitorous for opposing Liberal policies on accommodating Quebec.
“It is time to expose and identify Liberal labeling and stereotyping for precisely what it is – prejudice in another form, intolerance in another form, all accompanied by syrupy hypocrisy and all repugnant to more and more Canadians,” Manning said.
MPs seem to have taken his tougher message to heart already.
Last week, Saskatchewan MP and agriculture spokesperson Elwin Hermanson said he expects opponents will lie about Reform policy on the Canadian Wheat Board.
“I predict the NDP and Liberal line will be that we are out to destroy the wheat board,” he said in an interview. “That is dishonest and I will be saying that.”
