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There’s no hope with the Liberals. They have the continuity of most of Mr. Harper’s programs. If you want change on things like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Trans-Pacific Partnership represents the loss of 20,000 Canadian jobs.”

Q. He’s accused you of a mirage. What are they? Are these promises all a Liberal mirage? What are you suggesting?

A. Well, you know, when your program is a desert of ideas, as Mr. Trudeau’s is, I guess everything seems to be a mirage to you. But when we talk about something as concrete as affordable, quality child care, at most $15 a day, something we’re going to get done. The problem is getting ahead is the biggest problem right now. They are faced with $24,000 a year as a cost for an infant in childcare here in Toronto. That’s not possible for many families.

It’s not only good for the economy and families. Overall, it’s going to help a lot of women get back into the workforce, as it did n Quebec. Seventy thousand women went back to work and it provided a two per cent boost in GDP when that program was brought in. So overall this is not only something we can afford to do, it’s something that we can’t afford not to do. Liberals often make the mistake of confusing the limits of their vision with the limits of the universe. We know that we can get this done and we will get it done. And that’s, I guess, the big difference.

The Liberals are so used to flashing left and turning right after an election, so used to promising things that they have no intention of doing, that they assume that it’s the same for everybody else. I have confidence that the NDP will be able to deliver on these things when we form a government. I know that the public needs to have confidence in their ability to get out of a 150-year habit of saying “Well, we’ve got no choice. Get tired of the sponsorship scandal. We can throw out the Liberals and go back to the Conservatives. When we get tired of the Senate scandal, we can throw out the Conservatives.” This time there is another option. This time, there’s a chance for real change. There’s hope, and it’s the NDP for the first time as the Official Opposition with a real chance of forming a progressive government in Canada that is that hope.

We’ve got support across the country. We’re doing fabulously in British Columbia and in several prairie provinces. Our numbers in Atlantic Canada have never been higher. And we’ve been ahead every step of the way in the province of Quebec. On Oct. 19, here in Ontario, as a reflection of what I have seen in southern Ontario in those communities that have been devastated by Stephen Harper’s failed policies, we know that we have a chance of winning a lot of ridings. We have a real chance of forming a strong, stable NDP government on Oct. 19.