The Peterborough Examiner e-edition

Trudeau urges supporters to get the word out before today’s vote

The Liberal leader was in the city Saturday as campaign winds down

KENNEDY GORDON EXAMINER MANAGING EDITOR

Justin Trudeau called on supporters gathered at the Naval Club Saturday to do all they can before election day to encourage more people to vote Liberal.

The Liberal leader and twoterm incumbent prime minister spoke to a crowd of about 100 supporters at the invite-only event at the club on Whitla Street.

He urged them to call people, knock on doors and do whatever they can.

“And that’s where there’s a really important conversation I need you all to have with the folks that you’re out there talking to, your friends, your neighbours, cousins, your uncle, those folks out there who may be progressive, but are not entirely sure which way they should vote,” Trudeau told the masked crowd from an outdoor stage on the Naval Club property.

“Because let’s be honest, as Liberals, we know there’s that moment in the elections where things come down and progressives who think they might want to be voting for the NDP or maybe have in the past said to themselves, ‘OK, I’m really worried about the Conservatives forming government and taking us in the wrong direction. And I know the Liberals are the only ones that can stop them. But I also want to vote for the party with the strongest environmental plan, with the most ambition to help families, to support our economy, to move forward in defence of workers.’

“Well, in this election, both those choices are the Liberal Party of Canada.”

Trudeau was joined onstage by area Liberal candidates Maryam Monsef (Peterborough-Kawartha), Alison Lester (Northumberland-Peterborough South) and Judi Forbes (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes Brock).

Monsef is being challenged by Michelle Ferreri for the Conservatives, Joy Lachica for the NDP, Chanté White for the Green party, Paul Lawton of the People’s party and independent Bob Bowers.

Voters go to the polls Monday. Monsef introduced Trudeau, who was scheduled to arrive at 5:45 p.m., but didn’t make it to the event until after 7 p.m.

The Liberal government has injected “half a billion dollars in new investment” into the Peterborough-Kawartha riding, she said.

It was the first visit to the Peterborough-Kawartha riding by a party leader during this campaign.

During a roughly 20-minute speech, Trudeau discussed the planks the party is running on in this election — COVID-19 recovery, the economy, the environment, firearms and the safety of women.

At one point, while talking about Canada’s 80 per cent COVID-19 vaccination rate, he referred to Ferreri, who only recently received a second dose of the vaccine after being questioned about it.

Trudeau criticized Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole for not only allowing candidates to campaign without being vaccinated, particularly in seniors’ homes, but for deciding that candidates were under no obligation to reveal their vaccination status.

“He wants to not embarrass

the anti-vaxxers in his party,” Trudeau said.

Getting people vaccinated and back to work, combined with a federal $10-a-day child-care plan, will only strengthen Canada’s recovery and boost the economy, Trudeau said.

“We have now recovered 95 per cent of jobs lost in the pandemic,” he said.

“After years of the Liberal party fighting for ($10-a-day child care) and signing deals with the provinces to support them in their child-care goals, we finally said we’re doing it big because even the business community, even small businesses across the country and large businesses, through the experience of staying at home in a pandemic (with) kids, you know, not going to school realize, wow, child care is really important.”

He also touted his government’s accomplishments, including the accelerated vaccine availability, CERB and the Canada Child Benefit, which he said lifted more than 400,000 children out of poverty when it was introduced earlier this year.

In her introduction, Monsef noted the steps Trudeau took early in the pandemic to make sure people staying home were safe from domestic violence. She had approached him about the issue after he urged people to stay home.

“When the prime minister heard (this information), he understood that not every house is a safe house,” she said, adding that the government then immediately invested in more than 1,500 agencies to provide assistance to domestic violence victims.

Before Monsef spoke, former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who is running for re-election in Scarborough Southwest after serving in Trudeau’s cabinet as minister of public safety, talked to the audience about the need to keep firearms “designed only to kill” off the streets and out of criminals’ hands.

O’Toole, Blair said, wants to roll back the Liberals’ ban on certain weapons.

“O’Toole is talking to the gun lobby,” he said.

He noted that O’Toole recently flip-flopped on the issue, first saying he would respect the ban, then reversing course after outcry from the firearms industry.

“It’s the wrong thing to do and he knows it” Blair said. “How do we know? Because he lied. He lied, and he flipped.”

Before and during the event, protesters gathered along Lansdowne Street, chanting profanities and waving signs as people arrived.

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2021-09-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

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