Voting Liberal in Sask. elects Tories: Layton

Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2005 | 11:41 AM ET

CBC News

Appearing Friday in a province where his party was shut out in 2004, NDP Leader Jack Layton encouraged voters in Saskatchewan to vote strategically by not wasting their ballots on a Liberal.

"Voting Liberal in Saskatchewan in almost every riding across this province does nothing but elect a Stephen Harper Conservative," Layton said Friday.

The prairie province was the birthplace of the NDP, but in 2004 the party was shut out there for the first time since 1958. The Conservatives took 13 of the 14 seats. Only Ralph Goodale managed to win for the Liberals.

NDP Leader Jack Layton in Regina, Friday.

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, a fellow New Democrat, was at Layton's rally in Regina as the campaign for the Jan. 23 federal election heads into the weekend.

Calvert has been lobbying the federal government for an accord that would allow the province to keep a larger portion of its oil and gas revenues without the money being clawed back from equalization payments.

Layton said the NDP would help arrange a deal for Saskatchewan along the lines of the agreements Ottawa reached with Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador earlier this year.

"We will fight for a level playing field for all provinces under equalization," he said. "We will fight for an energy accord for Saskatchewan in the short term, and for cleaning up the ad-hoc, hodgepodge mess the Liberals have made of equalization in the long term."

Layton also took a swipe at Harper's announcement Thursday that the Conservatives would reduce the GST by two percentage points over five years.

"Harper told us yesterday that basically he is running on tax cuts," Layton said. "People would like a break on their taxes, there's no doubt about that. But then good Canadian common sense comes into play, common sense being noticeably lacking from Mr. Harper's agenda."

Layton said long-term care for seniors, tuition fees and student debt, and fixing health care should all come before tax cuts.

"We want a health-care system where it's the health-care card that gets you the health care, not the credit card," Layton said.

Earlier on Friday, Harper announced he would protect public medicare while reforming the system to reduce wait times.