In Portage La Prairie, central to the hotly contested Portage-Lisgar riding, national political leaders last week seemed to be a dime a dozen.
If this is Wednesday, that must be Tory leader Jean Charest. If it is Friday, it must be Reform leader Preston Manning.
As Manitoba’s Red Sea stabilized and the flood threat began to recede, the political tides started to rise.
After avoiding the province during the first three weeks of the five-week campaign for fear of being seen to be “politicking” over the flood issue, political leaders last week began their Manitoba swarm.
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Liberal leader Jean ChrŽtien visited Winnipeg twice in seven days. Health minister David Dingwall and agriculture minister Ralph Goodale were among the politician sightings.
Charest paid mid-week visits to Brandon, Portage and Winnipeg, followed three days later by Reform leader Preston Manning.
New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough also paid a call.
Campaign organizers said the intense interest in Manitoba was a reflection of two facts – the campaign really began only when the flood threat receded, and at least half of the province’s 14 seats are considered competitive.
In 1993, the Liberals won all but two, with Reform and the NDP splitting the leftovers.
This time, all three opposition parties say they expect to take some seats from others.
Meanwhile, the campaign headed into its final week with the leaders toughening their rhetoric on national unity issues, which increasingly dominated the debate.
It brought some loose talk about civil war.
Reform launched its last series of advertisements, using images of Charest, ChrŽtien and Quebec’s separatists leaders to argue that national unity is too important to allow only Quebec-based politicians in Ottawa or Quebec City to do the negotiating.
Manning called for a third leader’s debate on national unity, this time between himself, Charest and ChrŽtien.
The idea was rejected but not before the other leaders accused Manning of practicing low-life politics.
“The Reform party had not changed a bit,” said ChrŽtien. “They push all the hot buttons, they use all the code words and they appeal all the time to what divides Canadians, not what unites them.”
Charest, who last week received the endorsement of Alberta premier Ralph Klein and Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, accused Manning of promoting the breakup of Canada as his only national unity policy.
McDonough said “the logical extension” of Manning’s insistence on telling Quebec that a vote to separate would mean tough negotiations, including the possible partition of the province, is a civil war.
Manning called those attacks desperation tactics and extremism.
