VANCOUVER—New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair is appealing to the frustration of ordinary Canadians who feel ignored by the powerful as he enters the last leg of a campaign that began with the party more hopeful than ever before.

“The same papers and the same pundits and the same observers and the same pollsters have been trying to spin the same story for far too long,” Mulcair said Saturday morning in Burnaby, B.C., in response to a question about how newspapers nationwide owned by Postmedia had all run editorials endorsing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

“I know that they have their connections. I want the people in this riding to have their connection with an NDP government. We’ll be their connection to power and to good decisions for them and their families in Ottawa,” said Mulcair, whose rhetoric has been taking on the tone of an underdog these final days, even as he still claims to be aiming for a majority government.

The would-be spokesman for the Ottawa outsiders then got a boost from a powerful member of the leftist elite, however, when former Ontario NDP Leader Stephen Lewis gave a barn-burner of a speech to an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand people at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Lewis, 77, is known for his powerful oratory and he did not disappoint, with blistering attacks on both Harper and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as he made the case for the NDP as the best choice to bring change to Ottawa.

“Mr. Harper has made Islamophobia the centrepiece of his campaign,” Lewis said, referring to the Conservative-led rhetoric that has surrounded discussions of the Anti-terrorism Act (Bill C-51), the Syrian refugee crisis, the ban on wearing the face-covering veil called the niqab at Canadian citizenship ceremonies and a tip line for barbaric cultural practices.

“It isn’t just unworthy of a prime minister. It’s actually, when you think of it, shocking, mortifying, that a prime minister of Canada would descend to such political depths in the lust to retain power,” said Lewis.

“He doesn’t give a hoot for the rights of women, and suddenly for the crassest of anti-Muslim motives, he cares about gender equality — a pretend, fraudulent feminist in wolf’s clothing,” Lewis said of Harper.

Lewis also trained his sights on Trudeau, whose party has seen its support increasing in the public opinion polls, in many parts of the country at the expense of the NDP, as voters who want a change in government appearing to coalesce around him.

“So much of the policies etched in simple-minded rhetorical flourishes, uncertainty, confusion and contradiction it inspires neither trust nor confidence. And for this, we are now asked to join in a quest for majority government. Give me several breaks!” said Lewis.

Both Lewis and Mulcair made sure to mention once again the controversy surrounding Dan Gagnier, who resigned as co-chair of the Liberal campaign Wednesday after the Canadian Press reported he had sent an email to officials at TransCanada Corp., the company behind the proposed Energy East pipeline, advising them how and when to shape the decisions of a new federal government.

“The fox is trying to get back into the hen house,” Mulcair said at the earlier campaign event in Burnaby, where he also talked up the NDP as the party that represents — and listens to — ordinary people.

“You know who you have to talk to, to have influence with Tom Mulcair’s NDP government? You have to talk to the people in this room and in communities right across Canada,” Mulcair said as supporters, staffers and media crammed into a small campaign office for Carol Baird Ellan, the NDP candidate in the riding of Burnaby North–Seymour.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: