The newly minted leader of the official opposition was soundly criticized during stops in Alberta, where he toured the oilsands on Thursday, and in Saskatchewan for saying the Canadian dollar has been artificially inflated by oilsands exports by companies that don't pay the full cost of their pollution.
Mulclair argues that drives up the Canadian dollar and hurts the manufacturing sectors of central Canada -- an economic phenomenon known as "Dutch disease."
In turn he's being criticized for pitting one region against the other in a sneaky bid to win votes, and was told as much in Alberta and Saskatchewan over the past two days,
But in Winnipeg, Muclair received a standing ovation for his position on the environment in a half-hour speech to about 200 convention delegates.
"I remain firmly convinced that across Canada there's a lot more that brings us together than what divides us," he said in his speech. "Economic growth and environmental protection aren't competing roles. They go hand in hand.
"We're not making polluters pay. We're allowing some companies to use the air and soil and water as an almost unlimited free dumping ground. The Conservatives are allowing us to live off the credit card of our grandchildren. The clean-up of all of that is being left to them."
Mulcair used his time at the podium to tell party members that his goal is to be Canada's next prime minister in 2015 and remain true not only to environmental protection, but tax fairness and accessible health care.
"We established a system of universal, free, public, accessible medicare that's a symbol and a reflection of our fundamental goodness and that's in danger," he said to loud applause.
But he said he can only do all this if he gets elected -- and that can only happen if more people ages 18 to 25 vote.
"When young people stop voting, the right wing wins and democracy loses," he said.
In an interview he said the NDP will target teenagers, who will be eligible to vote in the 2015 election, over the next three years.
"The most important thing for us to do is make all young people understand that they're having an enormous debt laid on them by the Conservative party's choices across Canada," he said.
"They're being asked to clean the mess from a lot of the extraction processes going on across Canada.
"We're not applying the basic rule of polluter pay.
"We're also asking them to borrow huge amounts of money to get their education because the federal government no longer invests in post-secondary education. These are the types of things we think should be addressed."
Original Article
Source: winnipeg free press
Author: Bruce Owen
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