OTTAWA - The Bloc Quebecois is set to bring some heavy artillery into the federal election battle on Monday as the separatist party tries to push back an apparent NDP tide with just a week to go until voting day.
Former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau is scheduled to campaign with Bloc leader Gilles Dueceppe at an event in Longueuil, Que., near Montreal.
Parizeau is one of the most hardline separatists. His entry into the campaign comes two days after Duceppe issued a surprising appeal to sovereigntists to stick with his party in the face of recent polls suggesting an NDP surge in Quebec.
Duceppe raised some eyebrows when he posted a message on Twitter Saturday saying the election is a battle between Canada and Quebec.
He later replaced the note with a toned-down version appealing to sovereigntists to back his party. But the message is still a departure from previous campaigns, where Duceppe worked to broaden his appeal among non-sovereigntist voters.
Parizeau's Parti Quebecois government was behind the 1995 sovereignty referendum, which the sovereigntists very nearly won. Parizeau further inflamed tensions in Quebec by laying partial blame for the referendum loss on a large ethnic vote supporting federalism.
Layton will also be campaigning in Quebec today. He starts the day in Saint John, N.B., before heading to Gatineau, Que., where it's believed his party is in a three-way race with the Liberals and Bloc.
The NDP momentum had the Liberals looking over their shoulders on the weekend, but when asked about his stagnant standings in the polls, leader Michael Ignatieff said Sunday that he could still overhaul the Conservative campaign, despite its substantial lead in most polls.
"I just think that in lots of ways, the election has just begun," he told a news conference in Toronto.
Ignatieff is set to start Monday campaigning in Thunder Bay, Ont., before heading west to events in Vancouver later in the day.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is also scheduled to start the day in Northern Ontario with an event in Sault Ste. Marie before moving south to Windsor.
Both cities were represented by New Democrats in the last Parliament and Harper acknowledges that the NDP surge has created a challenge for his party.
"It's an interesting development," he said Sunday night in an interview with Global Television. "There's definitely ridings that we're in battles with the NDP."
The suggested NDP surge on the campaign trail is also causing a national newspaper to urge voters to avoid the New Democrats and vote Liberal if they want an alternative to the Conservatives.
An editorial in The Globe and Mail lauds Jack Layton for his impressive political style, but criticizes his party, saying its policies remain "stuck in the past."
The newspaper says it has yet to decide whether it will endorse the Conservatives or the Liberals, but it's telling those drawn to the NDP's rising popularity to see past Layton's charm.
"They may be chasing some of the same votes, but they are not interchangeable," the paper writes. "The Liberals remain a welcome antidote to ideological politics."
