September 22, 2008 Election News Clips Edmonton

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 ELECTION NEWS CLIPS

EDMONTON JOURNAL

1. Pragmatic politicking vs. ambitious policy-making 2. Dion's green plan would shift dollars to East 3. Father's criminal record shadows NDP hopeful 4. Layton gets tough 5. Tories hope to gain in ridings with a military presence 6. Tory candidate drops out after blog uncovered 7. Parties take stock of campaign Week 2, set up strategy for next phase

EDMONTON SUN 8. An election about nothing, every time

CALGARY HERALD

9. Alberta Liberal candidates' ideas clash with party 10. Opposition parties making push to lure Alberta away from Tories 11. Dion's deficit flip-flop

GLOBE AND MAIL

12. Liberal platform leaves cash to spare 13. NDP will repeal corporate tax cuts 14. Do not fear a Tory majority

EDMONTON JOURNAL

1. Pragmatic politicking vs. ambitious policy-making

Parties adopt radically different election strategies

Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, September 20

OTTAWA - The 2008 election is shaping up as a clash between Stephen Harper's cautious pragmatism and Stephane Dion's ambitious gamble.

When not dealing with the distracting gaffes by members of his party, Harper has demonstrated during this campaign that he is willing to take baby steps toward a Conservative majority government -- if not in this election, then the next one.

Meanwhile, the Liberal leader has thrown the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass with his Green Shift plan, which is being interpreted by many voters as nothing more than a new carbon tax.

The NDP's strategy is also bold. It centres around the hope that Canadians will turn to Jack Layton as a strong leader who best reflects the values of mainstreet Canada.

The approaches by the two opposition parties seeking to unseat the Tories aren't terribly surprising. They reflect the traditional attempt to secure the support of a broad base of the electorate.

Harper's approach, on the other hand, is much more incremental. It seeks victory by identifying niche voters throughout the country and persuading them -- vote by vote by vote -- to support the Conservatives.

Those looking for the secret to Harper's campaign strategy need look no farther than a book by one of his closest former advisers, University of Calgary professor Tom Flanagan.

In the final chapter of Harper's Team, which offers a behind-the-scenes account of how the Tories rose to power, Flanagan sets forth the "Ten Commandments of Conservative Campaigning."

"Canada is not yet a conservative or Conservative country; neither the philosophy of conservatism nor the party brand comes close to commanding majority support," writes Flanagan, who managed the 2004 Conservative campaign and worked in the war room during the 2006 election.

It is a premise Harper himself has acknowledged. At a campaign stop in Fredericton last weekend, the prime minister argued that Canadians have become more conservative in the past two decades, especially in their acceptance of balanced budgets and free trade. Nevertheless, they have not moved so far to the right that his party can assume their support.

In the face of this political reality, Flanagan recommends that Conservatives adopt a strategy of "incrementalism." Instead of "sweeping visions," the Conservatives should propose moderate policy reforms that gradually recruit more supporters into the fold.

Before the 2004 election, the Conservatives built a database, called the Constituency Information Management System, that stores a staggering amount of information about Canadian voters. The heart of the database is the national list of voters produced each year by Elections Canada. When candidates go door to door, or party pollsters call individual homes, voters are assigned a score that measures their support for the party.

By cross-referencing these data with widely available information on income, age and ethnicity, the Conservatives can build remarkably precise voter profiles.

In a sense, the difference between the Conservative and Liberal strategies is the difference between bottom-up politicking and top-down policy-making. Dion's Green Shift would impose a tax on greenhouse gas emissions, while partially offsetting the extra burden on consumers with income tax cuts.

The risk is that Canadians are simply not ready to embrace sweeping change at a time of economic certainly.

Perhaps recognizing this, the Liberals have recently sought to downplay the importance of their carbon tax proposal, in favour of a strategy emphasizing the party's economic credentials and the strong team of candidates surrounding Dion.

The NDP's strategy, meanwhile, is in some ways the left-wing mirror image of the Conservatives'. The NDP have taken dead aim at middle-class families worried about the slumping economy -- a group that the Conservatives are also targeting. The NDP has also tried to keep the spotlight on leader Jack Layton, who, in most polls, scores second only to Harper in terms of who Canadians think would make the best prime minister.

"There's a battle between Harper's campaign and Layton's campaign for a very similar demographic," said NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne.

"One is a very individualistic approach based on giving one person a tax credit, whereas our approach is about working together to invest in social infrastructure to help the middle class make ends meet."

2. Dion's green plan would shift dollars to East

Alberta, as nation's largest carbon producer, would contribute billions more than it receives

David Staples, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, September 21

Albertans would pay far more than other Canadians if the federal government enacts Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's Green Shift, economic and environmental experts say.

Concerns have been raised that the Green Shift would bring about a massive transfer of wealth out of Alberta. But Liberal politicians downplay these fears and argue that the tax could help Alberta solve many of its environmental and image problems related to the oilsands, while still treating Albertans in a fair manner.

"Our purpose here is not to punish any one part of the country," says David McGuinty, the federal Liberal environment critic. "It's not to play Robin Hood. It is to deal with the climate change situation."

But at least one Ontario Liberal MP, Ken Boschcoff, has plainly stated that the Green Shift is a way to transfer money out of Alberta into the rest of Canada, with roughly $9 billion of the $15.3 billion collected each year returned to Canadians with annual incomes of less than $40,000.

Boschcoff called it "the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years. The 'shift' will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians."

The Liberal plan would:

- Cut the lowest income-tax rate by 1.5 per cent, and middle-class taxes by one per cent. These tax cuts will cost $6.7 billion a year.

- Introduce a new, child-tax benefit worth $350 per child and increase the employment credit by $250 per working Canadian. The cost, coupled with a few other new programs, will be $3.7 billion a year.

- Give rural taxpayers a $150 green credit, a total cost of $800 million a year.

- Cut corporate taxes by one per cent, with an additional one-per-cent cut for small business, a total cost of $3.8 billion a year.

Alberta produces roughly 33 per cent of carbon emissions in the country, says Mark Jaccard, a professor of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University. But Albertans make up less than 13 per cent of the Canadian population.

If the money from a carbon tax is paid back to Canadians through income-tax cuts and credits, Alberta companies and consumers could pay more than 33 per cent of the many billions collected in a carbon tax, but Albertans could be returned just a fraction of that in rebates.

However, if a carbon tax program is properly constructed, every dollar taken out of Alberta could be returned, Jaccard says. "You might be able to

design this so that Alberta and Saskatchewan are getting back almost the same amount of money as they are paying in tax."

University of Calgary professor David Keith, who consulted with Dion's experts who designed the Green Shift policy, says there's no magic bullet to fix the issue of money draining from Alberta, but everyone agrees it wouldn't be politically possible to have a huge wealth transfer out of Alberta. "The reality is that if a (Liberal) government is elected, we will just have to start negotiating."

McGuinty says if elected, his government would be willing to negotiate with the various provinces to come up with a fair plan.

"We really don't want to divide and conquer. We don't want to pit group against group or region against region. We want to deal with the climate change problem."

McGuinty accepts that Albertans might well have doubts about the Green Shift.

"We also believe that there may be 10 provinces and three territories, but there aren't 13 atmospheres over Canada, there is just one."

The Green Shift has provisions for using carbon tax revenues to fund the research and development of technology that cuts down on carbon emissions. Alberta would get much of that research money, McGuinty says.

Alberta is under increasing international pressure to clean up its so-called "dirty oil" from the oilsands, and the Green Shift will help accomplish that, says University of Alberta economist Rick Szostak, the Liberal candidate in Sherwood Park.

It's also important to remember that just because Alberta businesses will pay the carbon tax for their massive emissions, they won't bear the brunt of the cost of the program, Szostak says. Those costs will be shifted to energy consumers, many of them in other provinces, and to shareholders, who are around the world.

"Alberta may have really big benefits out of this ... in terms of cleaner air, becoming a world leader in environmental technology, cutting away the danger of foreign discrimination against our oil, and providing some stability for investors."

Jim Wachowich, a Liberal candidate in Edmonton, says the Conservatives are also transferring money out of Alberta, with hardly any of their $8 billion in election spending being targeted at Alberta. "If you don't think that's a wealth transfer out of Alberta, then you're not being fair."

[email protected]

3. Father's criminal record shadows NDP hopeful

Trish Audette, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, September 21

The NDP candidate for Edmonton-Sherwood Park is asking voters to focus on his community record, not his father's criminal record for threatening Premier Ed Stelmach.

"I don't think my dad has anything to do with my candidacy or the 14 years of child and youth care work that I've done," Brian Labelle, 30, said Saturday. "Nothing my dad has done has reflected on my career."

But in a letter to members of the media earlier this year, which he also posted online, Brian Labelle strongly criticized the court process that put Ronald Labelle, 57, behind bars and saw the family's name in print.

Ronald Labelle was convicted in March of 31 crimes, including threatening to cause death or bodily harm to Stelmach and two dozen weapons offences. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, to be served on weekends.

Court heard he was tipsy and angry when he called the premier's office in September 2007. At the time, he was frustrated at work and feared the province intended to decertify his union local.

During a conversation with a receptionist, Labelle threatened Stelmach and his cattle, and warned that he would dig holes on the premier's property.

The receptionist called police, who searched Labelle's home and found 14 firearms that were improperly stored and unregistered.

Brian Labelle's letter said the media "sensationalized" the drunken phone call, and suggested his father was treated more harshly than necessary by the courts because the premier was involved.

"I'm not making excuses for what my father did, he obviously shouldn't have threatened to dig up someone else's garden or shoot their cattle," Brian Labelle wrote.

"If you or anyone you know has been the victim of a threat. ... I'd like you to ask yourself if you were satisfied with the end result of your experience and if the Alberta justice system bent over backwards to prosecute your attacker the way it's now spending your tax dollars hand-over-fist to prosecute my father for threatening to dig up the premier's potatoes?"

On Saturday, Labelle said the letter was written to put his feelings on paper.

"It was reported on at the time. I don't really feel the need to comment on it further."

Chaldeans Mensah, a political scientist at Grant MacEwan College, said would-be politicians have to be vigilant when putting messages out into the public.

"Things that they've put on the Internet can really come back to haunt them."

In 2004, the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona, Malcolm Azania, came under fire for allegedly anti- Semitic comments he posted on the Internet a decade prior to the election.

Brian Labelle is waiting for his candidacy to be confirmed by the NDP this week.

He said his dad is happy to see him carry the orange banner in the federal election.

"He's proud that I'm running and trying to make a change, and the way that I'm trying to make it," Labelle said.

He urged voters to look at his own character and what he has done for the community, rather than his father's behaviour.

"My dad's not running, it's me who's running."

Tim Uppal, the Conservative candidate for Edmonton-Sherwood Park, would not comment on how other parties choose their candidates. "You can't hold the actions of someone's parents against their children."

When door-knocking in his riding, Uppal said he has found residents want to discuss real issues such as taxes, safety and the environment, rather than personal politics.

Liberal candidate Rick Szostak echoed Uppal's caution against judging Brian Labelle for his father's conviction.

"I wouldn't hold it against the candidate," he said. "But I would expect the candidate to distance themselves."

[email protected]

4. Layton gets tough

NDP leader visits city to promise harsher sentences for gang crime, calls for slowdown in oilsands

Trish Audette, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, September 21

Jack Layton stopped in "Harper country" Saturday to meet supporters in downtown Edmonton and lay out a handful of crime-fighting strategies.

The promises include at least 2,500 new police officers on Canada's streets.

"New Democrats are determined to stop the spread of gangs," Layton told a crowd of 500 at the Winspear Centre.

He talked about tragic gun crimes in Toronto and the need to put an "absolute ban" on handguns across the nation. He also noted one of the city's candidates -- Michael Butler, who is holding the flag in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont -- was a victim of crime when his wife was killed in 2007.

Layton was in Tory-stronghold Alberta to stump for star candidates Linda Duncan in Edmonton- Strathcona and Ray Martin in Edmonton-East.

Martin is a former leader of the provincial NDP, while Duncan finished the 2006 election about 5,000 votes behind longtime Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer.

"I'd love to see a woman like Linda Duncan and a man like Ray Martin sitting with me at the cabinet table," Layton said.

Layton also repeated his call for Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to step down in light of jokes made about the listeria outbreak.

"People tell me that this is Harper country. Is this Harper country?" Layton asked the crowd. He was greeted by a chorus of No's. "They're taking Alberta for granted. They're taking the votes of Albertans for granted." Before getting to his crime agenda, Layton emphasized the need to slow down oilsands development in Alberta.

"You don't want your land fouled and strip-mined and poisoned," he said.

Standing up for Albertans, he said, means "being smart about oilsands and tarsands development until it makes more environmental and economic sense to proceed." Layton's crime plan includes $400 million over four years to fund new police officers, $25 million over the same period to strengthen witness protection programs and $50 million a year for crime-prevention strategies.

"New Democrats are committed to stopping the spread of gangs and to stopping the epidemic of gun violence threatening your families," Layton said.

He said he wants automatic first- degree murder charges attached to gang-related homicides, and drive- by shootings and firing at buildings to be treated as indictable offences.

But when asked how he would strengthen the justice system, with its chronically backed-up courtrooms and overworked prosecutors, Layton said he would take the lead from the provinces.

[email protected]

5. Tories hope to gain in ridings with a military presence

Harper fared well last time in places with bases

Mike Blanchfield, With files from Florence Loyie, The, Canwest News Service; With files from The Edmonton Journal Published: 8:33 am

OTTAWA - As war in Afghanistan rages, a critical political battle for the hearts and minds of military voters is shaping up in 17 key ridings across Canada.

This electoral fight extends to both Canadian coasts, the Near and Far North, while encompassing Quebec and some key Ontario battlegrounds that include a suburban Ottawa big-box community, according to a computer-assisted analysis of Elections Canada data by Punditsguide.ca and Canwest News Service.

Of the 308 federal ridings, 59 can be called military ridings, and on Jan. 23, 2006, the Conservatives were able to win 32 of them.

These include the riding that is home to the Edmonton Garrison. Westlock-St. Paul sprawls north and east of the city to the Saskatchewan border and includes Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Smoky Lake and Redwater. The riding is about as right-of-centre Tory blue as it gets in Alberta. It was won by Conservative Brian Storseth in the 2006 election with 68 per cent of the vote.

Of those 32 military seats that voted Conservative last time around, 13 were in Ontario, where the Tories were able to win 40 seats in all. That wasn't enough for a Conservative breakthrough in Canada's most populous province, and this time, the Liberals are fighting hard to win back some traditionally loyal Grit strongholds.

In 2006, the Liberals won 14 military seats, the Bloc Quebecois seven, the NDP five, and a Quebec independent won one.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has visited many military ridings held by the Bloc Quebecois during this election campaign.

"The majority of soldiers tend to be small-c conservatives so they'd probably tend to lean towards the patriotism and defence of the country. I think the Tories would benefit more," said retired major- general Lewis MacKenzie, who was a failed candidate for the old Progressive Conservatives 11 years ago.

Two and a half years ago, the Conservatives campaigned on a platform of Arctic sovereignty, and promised almost $20 billion in new spending on military hardware, including ships, planes and armoured vehicles. Since then, 89 Canadian soldiers have been killed on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's watch -- the most military fatalities in the half-century since the Korean War.

There is growing impatience by many Canadians with the pace of progress in Afghanistan. This ambivalence is being played out in the riding of Ottawa-

Orleans, a bedroom community that is home to many Defence department employees and young military families.

The Conservatives swiped the riding from the Liberals by a two-per-cent margin in 2006.

"The general feeling among the population is not favourable towards the war in Afghanistan," said Maurice Lamontagne, spokesman for Liberal candidate Marc Godbout, who lost the traditional Grit stronghold to Tory Royal Galipeau by a vote of 25,455 to 24,224.

Lamontagne said the key issues are transportation, infrastructure and daycare and predicted military families would support the Liberals.

"We are certainly getting our share of military personnel support on those issues," he said.

Other Ontario military ridings in play include a traditional Liberal stronghold, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, where the Conservative Pierre Lemieux won by a margin of 203 votes. This time, Dan Boudria -- the son of popular ex-Liberal cabinet minister Don Boudria-- is carrying the Liberal flag.

One of the toughest fights is taking shape in the B.C. riding of Vancouver Island North, home of CFB Comox.

Conservative John Duncan is trying to unseat New Democrat Catherine Bell, who beat him by 1.1 per cent in 2006. Two years earlier, Duncan carried the day over Bell by an even slimmer 0.9 per cent. This time, Duncan is confident his party's record, and Harper's stewardship of the war in Afghanistan, will help him carry the day.

"There's fairly broad acceptance of the way we've handled the Afghan mission. They have a diversity of opinion as well, but we do have over 100 personnel from Comox in Afghanistan right now. It's top of mind," said Duncan.

"It will play well for us because people believe the prime minister when he makes commitments. We have demonstrated results with acquisition on equipment."

Duncan predicted the 6,000 to 8,000 veterans living in the riding would not hurt his cause either.

"When you talk about the military vote, you're really talking about a lot more than the people working at the base. You're talking about generations of people."

6. Tory candidate drops out after blog uncovered

Calls bus passengers cowards for allowing beheading

Joseph Brean, Canwest News Service Published: 2:01 am

TORONTO - The Conservative candidate for a downtown Toronto riding has stepped down amid controversy over comments he posted on his blog.

Chris Reid, who was challenging Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae in Toronto Centre, resigned after blog postings emerged in which he criticized passengers on a Prairie bus this summer who "stood by and watched" as a man beheaded a fellow passenger, "and couldn't muster up any courage or self-sacrifice to intervene."

"This is where socialism as (sic) gotten us folks, a castrated effeminate population," he wrote on Aug. 10, more than a week after the killing of Tim McLean, 22.

Reid also called for debate on the right to carry a concealed weapon, an end to abortion and official multiculturalism, an elected Senate, and closing the CBC because of its "far left-wing bias." He said gay advocates in the Toronto Centre riding, which includes the city's gay village, tolerate the promotion of "promiscuity, drug usage and prostitution."

Kory Teneycke, the prime minister's chief spokesman, said he first learned about Reid's blog on Saturday. He said political staffer David Gentili would now carry the Tory banner in the riding against Rae.

Another Tory spokesperson, Deirdra McCracken, said Reid withdrew because "he couldn't commit to possibly four years as an MP, in order to pursue other goals."

Rae said that explanation is "completely preposterous. I think a more likely explanation are some of the truly weird comments that Mr. Reid has been making on the Internet over the last several months," he said. "I think that it would be the least the Conservative party could do to explain. Either they knew about these ravings, or they didn't, and if they didn't, that speaks to a problem, and if they did, then it speaks to an even bigger problem. "I think the Conservatives, generally speaking, have a problem with their team."

The comments were revealed on Saturday, when M.J. Murphy, a Torontonian who runs the blog bigcitylib.blogspot.com, posted several of Reid's writings under the headline: "The Tories Run Gay Nutter in TO!" He had retrieved them from an online cache after public access to Reid's blog was apparently removed.

Murphy said the swift reaction has shown the power of blogs in elections, but it also revealed something about the vetting process. "This guy was never gonna win," he said. "And so one of the things that I've been doing is looking at the no-hopers on the premise that they're not vetted that deeply. But if they're not vetted deeply, and something comes up, it's going to embarrass the campaign on a national level."

edmontonjournal.com

For breaking news on the federal election campaign, along with local and national features, blogs, videos and more, go to edmontonjournal.com/decisioncanada

7. Parties take stock of campaign Week 2, set up strategy for next phase

Canwest News Service Published: 2:01 am

Here's what the federal parties have to say about last week's campaigning and what they have planned for the coming week.

CONSERVATIVES

- What was accomplished?

"We spent the week announcing practical, meaningful and affordable measures to improve the life and standard of living of families in key battleground regions, particularly Ontario and Quebec. We went up to Nunavut . . . the first time in 20 years that a (Canadian) politician has actually visited the far North during an election campaign. I think we have good electoral prospects up there." -- Kory Teneycke, director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper

- What's the goal for this week?

"We'll be focusing on what we would call assurance issues, talking about issues of public safety, issues that will help ensure that people are feeling safe, secure and protected by the government. We'll also be driving some hard contrasts with the Liberals, the Bloc and the NDP."

LIBERALS

- What was accomplished?

"Backed by a strong team, Mr. Dion showed how Harper's economic policies have pushed the economy to the doorstep of a recession. Jobs eliminated, financial markets collapsing, savings lost. More Conservative apologies for insensitive comments. More likely to come. Mr. Dion spoke of a vision to cut income taxes, put more money in the pockets of Canadians while tackling the climate change crisis." -- Mark Dunn , director of communications for Liberal Leader Stephane Dion

- What's the goal for this week?

"He'll speak to Canadians in open forums. He won't hide in a bubble. He won't muzzle freedom of speech. He'll show what leadership is really about."

NDP

- What was accomplished?

"The NDP campaign focused on things that matter most to middle-class Canadians . . . addressing the five-million Canadians that don't have a doctor, those who've lost their manufacturing jobs and families who are struggling to afford quality day care." -- NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne

- What's the goal for this week?:

"New Democrats will start airing three new hard hitting ads this week . . . Expect more buzz and more momentum in Week 3."

BLOC QUEBECOIS

- What was accomplished?

"I think that for the first two weeks what we intended to do was to show that the only party that was able to beat the Tories in Quebec and stop them having a majority was the Bloc Quebecois . . . " -- BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe.

- What's the goal for this week?

"I will be speaking to the chamber of commerce both in Montreal and in Quebec next week.

"I'll be also meeting with the artists next week. I'll be meeting the students. I'll be meeting the FTQ (Quebec Federation of Labour), people with different horizons. And we'll come with a larger point of view of the platform we are proposing and the issues we want to defend during our next mandate."

GREENS

- What was accomplished?

"We finally got coverage of what we actually said in terms of when we presented our platform. The coverage so far has been about what's happened to us, we're in the debates, we're out of the debates, that kind of stuff. But what we actually were saying wasn't being covered." -- Green party spokesman John Bennett.

- What's the goal for this week?

"Our goal for next week is to make the Elizabeth whistle-stop tour a historic event in that it sparks the imagination of Canadians."

EDMONTON SUN 8. An election about nothing, every time

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

As in every election these days, Canadians must be wondering why it's happening again.

Why, when they care about the economy, health care and the environment, is election news dominated by pooping puffins, stupid remarks by politicians and "horse race" journalism?

What does it say about elections when the most insightful thing any politician has ever said about them -- that they're no time to discuss serious issues -- came from then Progressive Conservative prime minister Kim Campbell, who went on to win two seats in the 1993 campaign?

Campbell was mercilessly ridiculed by pundits at the time for stating what was already obvious 15 years ago. And yet today, many of those same pundits use Campbell's observation to make exactly her point.

So apparently, the substance of what Campbell said about elections in 1993 wasn't stupid.

It was just stupid for a politician to admit it.

Canadians care about their job security, the cost of living, their children's future, where they can find a family doctor, whether the air, water and food are safe. Click here to find out more!

And yet how often today are elections about any of these things, unless they're thrown onto the campaign agenda for one, 24-hour cycle by co-incident news events or "gaffes," before being discarded?

Who seriously believes what our politicians say about each other and what the media say about them -- that Stephen Harper is a robotic, control freak, Stephane Dion an incoherent wimp, with similar epithets hurled at every leader?

Back when he was covering American politics for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970 the late, great Hunter S. Thompson, described elections this way: "Some people call politics fun, and maybe it is if you're winning. But even then, it's a mean kind of fun ... Real happiness in politics is a wide-open hammer shot on some poor bastard who knows he's been trapped, but can't flee."

Thompson wrote that almost 40 years ago. It could have been written yesterday.

Small wonder a large and growing number of Canadians don't even bother to vote.

CALGARY HERALD

9. Alberta Liberal candidates' ideas clash with party

Free tuition, drug suggestions 'ambitious'

Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008

Alberta's Liberal candidates are telling voters they support free tuition for a students' first and last year in post-secondary schools, a policy Stephane Dion's national campaign admits is more "ambitious" than the official Grit promise.

That initiative is one of many contained in the party's published "made-in-Alberta agenda" which do not match ones promised by Dion in the first two weeks of the election campaign.

The document, available Friday on two local candidates' websites, also calls for a national pharmacare strategy that goes beyond the Liberal leader's pledge earlier this week for a plan for catastrophic drugs - - those for serious illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.

Alberta Grits are also saying they'll push for elected senators and a review of the temporary foreign worker program, alongside actual party promises such as reform on income trusts and the Green Shift's combination of a carbon tax and income-tax reductions.

The Liberals, currently shut out of Alberta's 28 seats, came up with their own agenda full of ideas that aren't necessarily promises, but are measures they would push the federal caucus to adopt if the party topples the Conservatives in next month's election, a Calgary Liberal candidate said.

"Let's face it -- if you're in government, you can promise or produce a lot more than if you're not in government," said Calgary Centre candidate Heesung Kim, whose website featured the document. "But these are all things the Alberta Liberals think are really, really good ideas we want to push for the national agenda."

Both the tuition and drug initiatives would almost certainly cost more than the national party's platform measures, which Dion has repeatedly insisted would be delivered within a balanced budget.

This week's Liberal promise of boosts to student aid and loan programs was pegged at $1.2 billion over four years.

Although price tags aren't attached to most of the Alberta agenda, the party's 2006 campaign platform calculated to merely halve tuition for first- and last-year students would cost $1.85 billion over four years.

National party spokesman Marc Roy said Friday night that unlike Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's policy of muzzling candidates, regional Liberal candidates are free "to express regional aspirations."

"It is more ambitious, but not inconsistent," Roy said of some of the Alberta wing's policies. "For example, nothing about a catastrophic drug plan is at odds with a larger national pharmacare plan."

The Conservatives have been hammering the Liberals for making billions of dollars worth of promises amid a turbulent global economy. These additional ideas show further signs of Dion's weak leadership and fiscal irresponsibility, said Jason Kenney, a Calgary Tory veteran.

"It looks like the left hand doesn't know what the left is doing in today's Liberal party," he said, after some portions of the agenda were read to him. "You can't run on multiple platforms. All it does is confuse voters."

There was some confusion among Liberals as to whether this agenda, which is online but won't be printed, represents promises or just ideas.

"My understanding is it's the national policy that is worded for Alberta," Calgary Southwest candidate Brad Carroll said. He added he had not read the document, which was distributed to candidates earlier this week, before Dion released his education platform.

"I'm not sure if a signal got crossed or what happened," Carroll added.

George Hodgson, the party's Alberta president, said late Friday he also wasn't clear about the document's connection to the national platform.

Kim said Alberta Liberal activists, including the province's appointed senators, drafted the agenda by considering both federal Liberal principles and the needs of Albertans, who have a long record of not electing any Liberal MPs outside Edmonton.