Mulcair rejects strategic co-operation with

Liberals to engineer Tory defeat

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is rejecting any last-minute electoral co-operation with the Liberals
that would engineer a Conservative defeat, saying his party still has a chance to form
government when the votes are counted on election day.

A group calling itself Just The Facts Canada ran a full-page ad in The Globe and Mail on
Tuesday urging Mr. Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to cede ridings to each other in
constituencies where public opinion surveys suggest they have little chance of winning and
vote-splitting could pave the way for a Conservative victory. It is just one of several proposals
for strategic voting being promoted by groups that aim to defeat Stephen Harper.

CP Video Oct. 13 2015, 10:58 AM EDT

Video: Mulcair says Trudeau 'slammed the door' on

coalition
One of the ridings where the group is asking Liberals to bow to the New Democrats is Oshawa,
east of Toronto, a Conservative seat where NDP candidate Mary Fowler has a chance to beat
Conservative incumbent Colin Carrie. It was Mr. Mulcairs first stop of the day and he made a
point of telling supporters who gathered outside an arena: In this region, as in so many others
in Canada, its only the NDP that can throw out Conservative candidates.

But he wouldnt discuss any form of collaboration that would help Liberals win in other parts
of Canada where they are strong and the New Democrats are not.
To those who would suggest pre-election co-operation with Mr. Trudeau, he said: I will say to
those people they should go back to the 2011 polls the same polls that were showing that the
NDP was in fourth place in Quebec a week out from the election campaign.
Elections, said Mr. Mulcair, are about campaigns, they are about ideas, they are about drive,
they are about determination, they are about track records.

Despite surveys that suggest his party has dropped to third place lagging 10 percentage
points behind the front-running Liberals Mr. Mulcair is still aggressively campaigning for
the win and is primarily going to places where his party hopes to take seats from the
Conservatives.
But he must also watch his flank. While the NDP Leader was giving a stump speech in Oshawa,
Mr. Trudeau was campaigning in the NDP-held riding of Beaches-East York, where incumbent
Matthew Kellway is in a tough battle.
Justin Trudeau has been fighting me more than hes been fighting Stephen Harper, said Mr.
Mulcair. I challenge Mr. Trudeau to start taking on Stephen Harper. My adversary here from
Day One, the person I have to defeat and replace, is Stephen Harper.
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Mulcair planned to visit the Toronto riding of Spadina-Fort York where
his candidate, Olivia Chow, the widow of former NDP leader Jack Layton, is fighting hard to
unseat Liberal incumbent Adam Vaughan. Then he intends to take part in a rally in Brampton
East, west of Toronto, another Conservative seat.
He was also expected to meet Tuesday with Mohamed Fahmy, the Canadian journalist who
was recently pardoned by the Egyptian government after spending many months in a Cairo
prison. Mr. Fahmy met with Mr. Trudeau on Monday but has refused invitations to take part
in Conservative campaign events.
Since the Conservative government signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal a little
more than a week ago, Mr. Mulcairs main message at campaign stops has been that is a bad
agreement for Canada and an NDP government would never bring it before Parliament for
ratification. He warns that it would kill tens of thousands of Canadian jobs a figure he
obtained from UNIFOR, Canadas largest private-sector trade union.
It is a message that the NDP expects to play particularly well in communities such as Oshawa,
where many jobs are based in auto manufacturing one sector that could be particularly hard
hit by the TPP.
Under Stephen Harpers watch, Canada has lost 400,000 well-paying manufacturing jobs, said
Mr. Mulcair. Just in Oshawa, 18,000 manufacturing jobs lost since Stephen Harper came to
power, he told the crowd, which was studded with the orange Stop Harper signs that are being
passed out at every NDP campaign event. Jim Stanford, the respected economist [for
UNIFOR], estimates that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will cost Oshawa 1,250 more wellpaying jobs.
Canada can and should have negotiated a better deal, said Mr. Mulcair. Stephen Harper
showed up two weeks away from the election and got a lousy deal. He was hoping to get
something for himself out of that negotiation. I want to get something for Canadian workers
when I renegotiate that deal.

Follow Gloria Galloway on Twitter: @glorgal