OTTAWA—Ignatieff tried to appeal directly to voters with a personal, at-times emotional infomercial that aired nationally.

Claiming “the election has just begun,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said he’s still got a week to defy the polls that show his party vying for second place with the NDP behind the front-running Conservatives.

“I feel as we get down to May 2nd, this is what it’s going to come down to: Who do you trust to govern the country?” Ignatieff said as he campaigned in Toronto on Sunday.

“There’s no question people want to change this government. Any way you look at these polls. . . they’re saying we want to get rid of Mr. Harper.”

Ignatieff was referring to opinion surveys which find the Conservatives in the lead but give a majority of combined voter support to the Liberals, NDP, Bloc Québécois and Greens together.

“Now the question becomes: Who can form a government to replace Mr. Harper—that’s the issue,” he told the media.

Zeroing in on the Conservatives’ $40-billion deficit, Ignatieff said Canadians need a government that knows how to balance the books. And, in a shot at the NDP, he urged voters to choose a party that “has been there” and has experience of government.

Ignatieff also laughed off the fact that he was booed by fans after he dropped in at a major junior hockey game in Mississauga Saturday night at the request of Mayor Hazel McCallion. It was the middle of the third period of a closely-contested game “and some darn politician pops his head up on the Jumbotron —I’d boo,” Ignatieff joked. “It’s Saturday night, they want to watch hockey,” he said of the fans.

Hoping to break out of his party’s mediocre showing in the polls, Ignatieff tried Sunday to appeal directly to voters with a personal, at-times emotional infomercial that aired nationally.

The 30-minute Liberal ad attempts to expose millions of viewers to the kind of town hall meetings Ignatieff has been holding daily. The sessions, where he takes unscripted questions from large audiences, are seen by Liberal handlers as his best moments during the campaign and as a stark contrast with Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s carefully controlled public exposures.

In the ad, Ignatieff talks about his past, his campaign platform and what he sees as Harper’s overly politicized approach to public affairs.

“I think we want a government that listens to Canadians instead of manipulates Canadians,” Ignatieff says as soft music plays in the background.

“We got a prime minister who is all politics all the time—everything’s political. There doesn’t seem to be any principle that he won’t sacrifice. There isn’t any national interest that matters more than the Conservative party.

“So he’s got a very clear vision of the Conservative party and no vision at all of the country,” Ignatieff says of Harper in the wrap-up to the 30-minute spot.

The Liberal leader said his own vision is to provide Canadians with hope that a new government would help families by improving pensions, assisting with post-secondary education costs, sustaining medicare, enhancing daycare facilities, enabling care for ill family members and helping the environment through a tax break for “green” home renovations.

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The ad is an attempt by the Liberals to deal with the fact that Ignatieff by most accounts is running a good election campaign but has been unable to translate that performance into improvements in his party’s poll standing.

Ignatieff also spoke Sunday afternoon at Khalsa Day celebrations at Queen’s Park

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