Khalsa Day celebrations at Queen’s Park turned into an election campaign venue Sunday.

“Sikhs have been here for 100 years or more,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told thousands of people celebrating the holiday. “You have built this great country and we have built it together side by side.”

Ignatieff, who spent the day campaigning in Toronto, promised if he becomes prime minister to step up efforts to work for “justice for victims’ families” in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

And he said Parliament should issue an apology for the decision by British Columbia authorities to refuse to let Sikh passengers disembark in Canada from the liner Komagata Maru in 1914.

“This is a shame upon the history of Canada,” Ignatieff said.

He crossed paths at the Khalsa celebration with the NDP’s Jack Layton, who exchanged a brief handshake with the Liberal leader as they switched places on the outdoor stage. Layton received a tremendous round of applause from the Sikh audience.

He took the stage, sporting an orange bandana, and was greeted by an "NDP! NDP!" chant. One man held up a sign that read “Prime Minister Jack Layton.”

The New Democrat joked that people were wearing a lot of NDP orange, a traditional colour of celebration for Sikh.

“On this new year may you always have happiness,” Layton told the crowd.

Conservative candidate Jason Kenney also addressed the crowd.

Earlier, Ignatieff claimed “the election has just begun,” adding that he’s still got a week to defy the polls showing 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.

“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 Quebecois 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 on 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.

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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.

With files from The Canadian Press