XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   The Canadian Press — CP — Jan 17 2014   
      
   Campaign has already started: Mulcair   
      
      
   OTTAWA - NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is muscling in on the same electoral   
   turf that Justin Trudeau has staked out for the Liberals: middle class   
   families.   
      
   He embarked Friday on a campaign to persuade people that the NDP is the   
   only party that understands the challenges faced by average folks and   
   that is devoted to making life more affordable for them.   
      
   "We're going to protect consumers. We're going to stand up for   
   families," Mulcair told New Democrat MPs gathered to plot strategy for   
   the Jan. 27 resumption of Parliament.   
      
   "And we're going to stand up for all Canadians."   
      
   Mulcair announced he'll start a nationwide tour next week to meet   
   Canadians at home and in their communities and discuss ways to tackle   
   "staggering bills and skyrocketing household debt."   
      
   That will be followed in the spring by a national consultation with   
   small and medium-sized business owners, aimed at finding ways to help   
   them grow and create "good, middle-class jobs right here in Canada."   
      
   By contrast, Mulcair accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's   
   Conservative government of telling Canadians: "You're on your own, get   
   used to it."   
      
   "In Mr. Harper's Canada, a well-connected few get ahead while everyone   
   else gets left behind."   
      
   And, notwithstanding Trudeau's declared priority of improving the lot of   
   middle class families, Mulcair said the Liberal record in government   
   shows they're no better.   
      
   Over the last 35 years, he said income has grown for the top 20 per cent   
   of income earners while it's shrunk for the remaining 80 per cent. And   
   94 per cent of the growth in income inequality occurred while the   
   Liberals were in power, he added.   
      
   The only time Liberal governments took action to remedy the problem was   
   when they were forced to do so by the NDP, Mulcair said.   
   He reminded his MPs that late NDP leader Jack Layton forced Paul   
   Martin's teetering Liberal minority government to cancel $4.6 billion in   
   planned corporate tax cuts and invest instead in affordable housing,   
   public transit and student debt.   
      
   "Those were our priorities. That's where we put the money," Mulcair said.   
      
   "We know who we are. We know who the Liberals are. Don't ever forget it."   
      
   Under a fixed-date election law introduced by the Harper government, the   
   next election is scheduled for October 2015. However, both the NDP and   
   Liberals suspect Harper may ignore the law, as he's done before, to go   
   to the polls earlier.   
      
   Mulcair made it clear the NDP isn't waiting for the writ to be issued,   
   declaring that the campaign has already begun and that his party has its   
   slogan set to go.   
      
   "From students to seniors, from First Nations to recent arrivals, New   
   Democrats are taking a simple message from coast to coast to coast in   
   the next election: 'the NDP is on your side'."   
      
   Mulcair won plaudits during the spring and fall sittings of Parliament   
   for his relentless, prosecutorial grilling of Harper on the Senate   
   expenses scandal. But Trudeau, who spent most of his time stumping the   
   country, seemed to be the chief beneficiary of voter disenchantment with   
   the government.   
      
   Mulcair said he won't let up on the Senate scandal but has evidently   
   decided he needs to spend more time on the road as well.   
      
   His consumer protection tour is aimed at demonstrating the NDP   
   understands what Mulcair called "the changing face of struggling   
   families in Canada" — where both parents have "low-wage, very precarious   
   and almost always part time jobs ... without any real opportunity to get   
   ahead."   
      
   These families can't afford increased hydro bills or getting "nickled   
   and dimed" by automated bank machines or paying "usurious" interest   
   rates on payday loans or getting dinged $2 just to get a paper version   
   of a bill, Mulcair said, promising to offer "concrete solutions."   
      
   While the government promised a consumer-first agenda in last fall's   
   throne speech, Mulcair said it hasn't delivered.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)