Federal party leaders visit key ridings to build support before election

Armed with new polls that paint a dramatically different picture of the election campaign – the federal party leaders are fanning out to key ridings to drum up support.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton are campaigning in Quebec, where polls have shown a surge in NDP support.

Layton suggested he would push to bring Quebec into the Constitution if the Harper government was defeated.

“We have a quarter of our population, the people of Quebec, who have never signed on to our Constitution.  That can’t go on forever.” said Layton.

Stephen Harper said jobs and the economy are far more important to Canadians.

“They do not want an unstable government that is going to spend time arguing about the constitution. We went through that for twenty years.” said Harper.

The recent surge of support has encouraged the NDP to change their campaign ads from ones of attack to ones urging Canadians to see Jack Layton as Prime Minister.

The move has forced both the Conservatives and the Liberals to change their attack ads to include the NDP.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party is the only one that can replace the Harper Conservatives and warned Canadians that voting for the NDP or the Bloc would only help Harper.

“If you vote for Mr Layton, you’re going to get a Harper minority government. If you vote for Mr Duceppe you’re going to get a Harper minority government. Mr Duceppe has actually said so.” Ignatieff told a crowd in Vancouver.

Ignatieff also predicted his support would peak on election day.