Liberals, not Tories, would build on Canada's achievements, says Martin

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 | 6:46 PM ET

CBC News

The Liberals would build on Canada's accomplishments, while the Conservatives would tear it down to build a different country, Liberal Leader Paul Martin said on Tuesday.

Martin was in Winnipeg, where he gave an impassioned 20-minute speech intended to set the tone for the second half of the election campaign.

The Liberals intend to spend the next week revealing policy proposals, but Martin used his appearance at the Canadian Club in Winnipeg to deliver what his aides called a major speech, which they hope will turn the tide on Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's rising poll numbers.

Liberal leader Paul Martin after speaking at a meeting of the Canadian Club in Winnipeg, Tuesday January 3. (CP Photo/ Frank Gunn)

"I see a Canada we can build on, improve on, move forward," Martin told the audience at the a downtown Winnipeg hotel.

"But [Harper] speaks of moving in an opposite direction, away from all we have achieved together and towards a very different country."

Martin has spent much of the campaign expounding the Liberal government's accomplishments over the past 12 years. The Liberals say they'll begin setting out their policy in the next week.

On Wednesday in Victoria, he's expected to announce an expansion of the government's strategy to reduce health-care waiting times. Other policy announcements planned involve foreign affairs, education and the environment.

"My party and I, all of us, will deliver what no other political party can, because we believe in what no other political party does," he said.

"We will deliver the biggest tax cuts. We will deliver the first new social program in a generation: child care. We will deliver the best plan for safer, healthier communities, and as the only truly national party, we will protect our unity with strong voices from Quebec."

Martin characterized the Conservatives as the party that would "pull the plug" on many social programs.

On Tuesday, Martin repeated his claim from Monday that Harper believes in a "fend-for-yourself Canada."

Martin took aim at Harper's promise to tear up federal-provincial agreements on child care in favour of a cash allowance for parents of small children.

"I believe that in the real world, you cannot cut a cheque for $25 a week and call it a child-care strategy...," Martin said.

"What if decades ago, Tommy Douglas and my father and Lester Pearson had considered the idea of medicare and then said, 'Forget it, let's just give people 25 bucks a week?"' Martin said.

Research funding announcements expected

The Liberals are expected to announce promises worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Manitoba's research community by the end of the week.

"In Manitoba terms, they are large. I think a couple of them are overdue, " Reg Alcock, the senior Liberal MP in the province, told CBC News.

By week's end, Alcock will unveil details of a $150-million expansion to the national microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg.

"The lab has been so successful in the work that it's doing nationally and internationally that it's hit its capacity," he said. "It actually needs more lab space because it doesn't have the room to do all the work that's coming at it."

Alcock is also expected to announce a $250-million fund to expand all areas of research at the province's three universities. He will then travel to the north and to Brandon to release details of other Liberal campaign promises.