Bob Rae    Bob Rae MP for Toronto Centre

I am often asked "what is the Liberal message ?" This is my version.

The Liberal Party is about the future.

The Liberal Party is about change.

The Liberal Party is about Canada - as Laurier said , first, last, and always.

"Always" means the Liberal Party is about renewing and taking care of our country and the world.

The next campaign builds on our strong belief that we have done great things together in the past and will do them together in the future.

A new Liberal team working together under the leadership of Stephane Dion is committed to a bold program of change, a change we must make together to ensure a fairer, greener and richer Canada.

We need to embrace the future, embrace the world,and embrace change, because the alternative means less prosperity, more pollution and less opportunity and fairness for all Canadians.

At the heart of the Liberal campaign is a bold proposal for real tax changes - to create dramatic tax savings for Canadians on their income and investments. It will establish as a world leader for tax fairness, a world leader for innovation, a world leader for prosperity.
The campaign will provide real and practical examples of how much people will save, the benefit to provinces, regions, and cities.

The campaign has to give the leader the chance to match the boldness of his vision about the future with tangible commitments that will speak to the concerns and preoccupations of ordinary Canadians.

This campaign is about the future. It is about hope. It is about making the changes we need to make to succeed in the future, and to make sure our success is sustainable and widely shared.

Over a hundred and thirty years we decided to make a country that would be stronger than any its parts. We built homes, and communities, and jobs. With the reverse takeover of the Progressive Conservative Party by the ideologues of the Reform/Alliance, we are now presented with a Conservative Party committed to the narrowest vision of Canada. Harper sees the role of the fed government as an army and an ATM machine for the provinces

We Liberals, by contrast, have rightly seen government not as the enemy but as our instrument for the common good. We have used that instrument to help us build, to protect us from the gathering storms of war, to insure us when we've lost our job. We have chosen to ensure that everyone of us, no matter how poor or how rich, would be able to receive medical care. We chose as a country not to send our troops to Vietnam or Iraq as combatants, but to go to Suez and Cyprus and Afghanistan as peacekeepers and country builders. We chose to join other countries in banning landmines, in reducing pollution, and, most recently, in fighting climate change which threatens the stability of life itself on the planet.

The Canadian people have more often than not chosen the Liberal Party because we have felt that at critical times it has been in our corner, it has been the party that expressed best our hopes for ourselves and our children, and our worries about the uncertainties of life - the illness that can strike us all, the sudden loss of work, a world that can often seem a risky place.

Canadians are generally an optimistic people, but today we are concerned. We are concerned about the economy and jobs, about security at home and around the world, about the changing climate, about clean water to drink and clean air to breathe.

We want Canada to be a better peacemaker, and to keep its own voice in the world.

We want to be able to go to a doctor when we're sick, and not to worry about delay and the unpredictable costs of care, including drugs.

We want governments to understand that as our economy goes through tremendous change we expect them to help us out - with training, with jobs, with measures to help us cope with the higher cost of living.

We have a straightforward plan. It has been costed, and we all agree it should be done without running a deficit.

But to do this the two thirds of Canadians who don't want Stephen Harper to be Prime Minister will have to come together.
If votes are split with the Greens and the NDP, the Republican agenda will triumph in Canada.

But if more and more progressive people come under the Liberal umbrella we can win.

The best way to help people, to make a difference, is to replace that government with a Liberal team committed to putting Canadian families first, to being in your corner every day of the week.

The campaign has five sub-themes which are all about the future.

1. What it takes to make us prosperous - tax change, investments in people ( skills, students, early childhood education), infrastructure, a vision of a national economy in a rapidly shrinking and ever more competitive world.

2. What it will take to make us sustainable, taxes (that word again), incentives for businesses and consumers, citizen engagement (what we can all do to change), and tough regulation, as well as a strong strategy on clean air, water, bio-diversity and green spaces

3. What it will take to ensure opportunity for everyone - taxes again, investments in people (see no. 1), a serious strategy for aboriginal Canadians (Kelowna plus), better immigration and settlement strategies, housing, improvements on health care, and vision for seniors and an ageing population

4. A recognition that Canada has to find its voice again in the world, change of our role in Afghanistan, clear commitment to conflict prevention and resolution, strong presence in UN, NATO, OAS, and ASEAN. Championing Canadian trade interests in US, Asia (new approach to China and India), and renewed and coherent interest in Africa. Clear commitment to .7 with clear examples of where new money will go. Shakeup of bureaucratic structures at home and abroad to ensure government wide co-ordination and implementation.

5. Stephane Dion as the man of the Charter, of Canadian unity, as a team leader, as someone who knows and understands Canada. The mano a mano with Harper is clear - H is top down, secretive, doesn't believe in the Charter, wants firewalls, a pinched and narrow vision of the country. Dion consults, listens, wants strong people around him, has a generous and courageous vision of the country which he wants to share with Canadians and the world.