Wednesday afternoon Jason Kenney — Conservative candidate, and frequent party spokesperson — held a news conference in the National Press Theatre, across the street from Parliament Hill.

Kenney had booked the room to criticize Liberal candidate Bob Rae's record when he was premier of Ontario in the early 1990s.

Rae has joined Stéphane Dion on his national tour this week.

But while the anglophone reporters were asking Kenney about his message, francophone journalists were asking him pointedly about a statement he made to a Montreal newspaper. Kenney is quoted calling the Bloc Québécois intolerant against ethnic diversity and Western Canadians.

Kenney also said he hears a little bit of an echo of Jacques Parizeau's 1995 Referendum night reference to money and ethnic votes.

However, in the last Parliament the Bloc boasted MPs of Haitian, Lebanese and Vietnamese descent.

So reporters wanted to know exactly what was Kenney saying.

Kenney's long response finally only came up with one example, Duceppe's criticism of a Conservative candidate for being a member of the Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei.

Kenny also said Duceppe has promoted intolerant stereotypes of Western Canadians who wear cowboy hats in a poster.

—Chris Rands