Paul Martin's Latest Campaign A (en francais)

National Weekly Campaign Ad by Paul Martin

November 11, 2005 To listen, click here.
(bandwidth gratefully provided by the Liberal Party of Canada)

Hello there, greetings from Ottawa.

You probably heard a lot of talk this week about a federal election over the Christmas holidays.

And I’m sure you’ll hear more in the days to come.

The opposition parties don’t seem to want to talk about anything else.

Fair enough, that’s the nature of politics, I guess. But I have a different view.

It's only taken 12 years, but now's the time for Liberals to get to work... finally!

I believe that Canadians elected us to do a job – to make a real and positive difference.

And I think that moving Canada forward should be our one and only priority this fall.

Why is it that most of the legislation you're worried about not getting passed, is the same legislation that you killed when you called an election last May?

I long ago pledged that I would call an election early in the new year. That’s only a few months away.

So I’m going to leave it to the opposition leaders to explain why they want to force a campaign even earlier – one that would take place over the holidays, no less.

Not exactly the kind of seasonal activity they write Christmas carols about.

1. The government (that would be you) actually sets the date for an election. The MINIMUM campaign is 36 days. You can set a date to avoid going to the polls in December.

2. The Liberals didn't seem to have any qualms about a Christmas campaign in 1979 when they defeated Joe Clark's minority government on December 12th, 1979

As for me, I’m going to continue to focus squarely on meeting my responsibilities by taking action.

That would be a first

That means cutting wait times for patients in our public health care system.

It means standing up to the Americans on softwood lumber.

It means cracking down on violent crimes involving handguns.

And it means working to improve quality of life for all Canadians.

The best way to resolve these issues and the overall quality of life for Canadians is to make sure you never get near another government decision for a VERY long time.

Tomorrow, Ralph Goodale will be outlining our plan to address the tax burden, further reduce our national debt and invest in the things that matter most to Canadians.

A supposed 'economic update' that is now a mini-budget, after Ralph Goodale swore that he would not do so. Buying Canadians with their own tax money... again!

My message to the leaders of the other parties is this:

We’ll have an election soon.

Not soon enough!

The holidays should be about family.

And the next few months should be about getting things done for Canadians.

What are you seriously going to do for Canada in the next few months that you shouldn't have already done in the last 12 years? Live up to your promises? You'd better hurry, you've go a lot to live up to.

Thank you. Enjoy your Sunday.