Vote Liberal where NDP can't win: CAW boss
Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2005 | 12:09 PM ET
CBC News
CAW boss Buzz Hargrove said there should be a strong NDP opposition, but urged members to vote Liberal in ridings in which the NDP has no chance of winning.
He said the minority Liberal government "deserves to go back to Ottawa with even bigger numbers."
"Whether you elect a Liberal or an NDP, the overall numbers don't change in terms of the ability to form a coalition government," he said. "We're out to stop the Tories."
Liberal Leader Paul Martin walks with Canadian Auto Workers union president Buzz Hargrove prior to his speech at the CAW annual meeting in Toronto. (CP photo)
"We're saying to people don't waste your vote. Make sure we don't send any more Tories to Ottawa. We don't need them."
During a campaign stop in Toronto on Friday, Martin warned union members that there is "a fundamental clash of values" between Liberals and Conservatives and that they have to make a realistic choice.
"Now I know many of you in this audience have supported the NDP, but I also know this: Liberals or Conservatives, one of us will form the next government," said Martin.
He urged CAW members to make a choice, between himself and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.
He said his party's economic policies are closer to the NDP's than those of the Conservatives.
Liberals employed the same tactic in the last campaign in 2004, urging NDP supporters to vote strategically for Liberals to ensure a Conservative loss.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who has campaigned against strategic voting, shot back at Hargrove.
"Mr. Hargrove is well known for having his opinions and expressing them and he's entitled to them," Layton said Friday while campaigning in Saskatchewan.
