Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has denied an accusation from Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn that he has threatened provincial Tories who are planning to support Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the federal election.
"Absolutely, categorically, that's untrue," he said of the allegation.
Williams has promised to mount an Anything But Conservatives (ABC) campaign over his long-standing public feud with Harper.
"The people of Canada can't trust (Harper), the integrity isn't there," Williams said in a press conference Friday.
He asked members of his Progressive Conservative caucus to make their allegiances known to him. On Friday, Williams said 43 of 44 caucus members have backed him against the federal Tories.
"If we are phoning MHAs (members of the house of assembly) and we're looking for support for ... the ABC campaign, that's in a positive manner," Williams said.
"There's no negativity. There's no threats. I don't get into threatening campaign workers. I don't get into threatening candidates. I can tell you right now, that's not my game."
But Hearn, a Newfoundlander Conservative MP who is retiring from federal politics, had a few parting shot for Williams on his way out -- calling the premier a "dictator."
"If I were running, there would be people campaigning against me because they were told to do it," he said. "That's dictatorship."
Hearn issued a statement Friday saying he based his concerns on comments from members of the Newfoundland Progressive Conservatives and their staff.
"They felt there was a clear expectation that they needed to publicly campaign for ABC, even if they didn't agree with it, or there was a threat to their career advancement within the Williams government," he said.
"If there is no threat, will the premier commit publicly that there will be no action taken against MHAs who choose to volunteer for Conservative Party of Canada?"
Williams and Harper's feud began after the prime ministered altered the equalization formula, which the premier says will cost Newfoundland close to $10 billion.
To retaliate, the mega-popular Williams said he would do everything he could to hurt Harper in an election.
The premier has also charged that Harper told him that the Conservatives didn't need Newfoundland in a vote, something the prime minister has denied.
Bloc look to block Tories in Quebec
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe says the Conservatives' real agenda is starting to surface and his party is the only one that can stop them in Quebec.
"People will see the real Harper is coming back. The Reformist is coming back," he told reporters in Montreal on Friday in remarks about the federal election call expected Sunday.
"He's the one who said in 2003 we should be in Iraq. Under a majority government with Stephen Harper in 2003, Quebecers and Canadians would be in Iraq."
Duceppe took aim at some Tory cuts to arts and culture programs, saying, "culture is the soul of a nation."
The cuts have been unpopular in Quebec, although the Tories have argued that overall federal arts and culture spending is up.
Duceppe also attacked the Tories on promotion of the French language and regional development.
Duceppe's remarks come on the day the Globe and Mail released the results of a Leger Marketing poll showing the sovereigntist Bloc and federalist Conservatives in a virtual tie in Quebec.
"I don't want to comment on the polls," Duceppe said, but then noted other polls have the Conservatives in third place in the province.
Quebec has 75 seats, and the Bloc captured 51 in the Jan. 23, 2006 election. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has worked hard to curry favour with Quebec voters since then.
Here's the current seat breakdown in Quebec (national total in brackets; 155 required for a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons):
- Bloc - 48 seats (48)
- Tories - 11 seats (127)
- Liberals - 11 seats (95)
- NDP - 1 seat (30)
- Greens - none (1)
- Independent - 2 (3)
- Vacant - 2 (4)
"We will work hard. Quebecers will find out the only party ... that is defending the interests of Quebecers" is the Bloc, he said.
Duceppe painted his party as a defender of the Kyoto Protocol on fighting climate change -- a stance that is popular in Quebec. The Conservatives have abandoned trying to reach Canada's Kyoto target of a six per cent cut below 1990 levels by 2012.
Harper once called Kyoto "a socialist plot," he said.
While Canada might see its petroleum resources as a source of wealth, "for us, oil weakens us," Duceppe said.
Voting for the Conservatives would mean a vote against Kyoto and against the promotion of arts and culture, he said, adding the Tories have lied about Quebec having a seat at UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organization.
"Quebec's delegate is standing behind the Canadian delegation," he said.
