Layton intensifies attack on Martin at huge NDP rally

Last Updated: Saturday, January 14, 2006 | 9:57 PM ET

CBC News

NDP Leader Jack Layton saw one of the largest rallies in his campaign on Saturday, as he came home to Toronto to step up his attack on Paul Martin and issue a strong plea to disaffected Liberal voters.

The theme song Won't Get Fooled Again played as more than 1,000 union members and NDP supporters cheered for Layton at the city's Exhibition Place.

Public opinion polls have suggested Layton's party is in third place for the Jan. 23 election, but Layton urged voters not to assume that the two front-runners are their only options.

Jack Layton addresses the crowd at a rally in Toronto on Saturday. (CP Photo)

"We don't have to choose between Conservatives who are wrong on the issues and Liberals you can't trust and who have let us down. There's a better choice, a different option."

Layton also continued to walk the tightrope of trying to woo voters from Martin's Liberals without scaring them into the arms of Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

"This time it's time to change your vote," said Layton, who repeatedly named Martin as he condemned the Liberal government in his speech.

"If you voted Liberal in the past, then this time we're asking you to vote for a tough, disciplined, talented, experienced NDP team, a team that have proved that they are superbly good at getting results in Parliament for you – and that's exactly what we're going to need."

The call was aimed specifically at the Toronto area, where many NDP candidates are thought to be in close races with Liberal incumbents.

In the 2004 election, many NDP supporters cast their votes for the Liberals after Martin successfully argued that only his team could stop Harper from forming what the Liberals portrayed as a frightening right-wing government.

The NDP won 18 seats, but they needed 19 to hold the balance of power in the House of Commons.

Layton vowed to prevent that from happening again.

He has been giving the Liberals a taste of their own medicine in the current campaign, arguing that only the NDP could curb a Harper government as polls suggested a surge in support for the Tories.

He also warned that if the Liberals won the vote, they would be too busy recovering from recent controversies and healing internal rifts to focus on governing.