Federal election: candidates call for strategic voting in Nickel Belt

While everything from the Ring of Fire to the niqab came up and with election day two weeks away the would-be MPs for Nickel Belt started appealing directly for votes at Monday night's debate.

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Liberal Marc Serre was the most direct telling his "Conservative friends" that "aConservative vote in Nickel Belt is a spoiled ballot."

"Ms. Laamanenis a great person," Serresaid. "But today in Nickel Belt we have a two-way race. I ask my Conservative friends to look at the alternative: an NDP member."

But Conservative candidateAinoLaamanendisagreed, telling the crowd of about 75 at the debate organized by the Chamber of Commerce to think about the economy when they vote.

"Your choice in Nickel Belt has real consequences," she said.

StuartMcCallof the Green Party took a different tack, praising all of his opponents as good people, at first.

"But to tell the truth here, wouldn't you rather have me?"

Many of the issues were the same raised in past debates, with well-worn answers exchanged with recitations from party platforms on everything from the Ring of Fire to the long-form census to the controversy over the niqab.

The economy and fiscal management was also front and centre, with incumbent ClaudeGravelle claiming the NDP is "the best at balancing budgets," citing the record of Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas.

"I wasn't even born. That is a long time ago," said Serre. "When you look atanNDP in Ontario ... how can Mr. Gravelle say that you can trust the economy and the budget to the NDP?"

Gravelle was quick to point out that the Ontario NDP government from the early 1990swas "lead by a Liberal" a reference to Bob Rae, who later defected to the federal Liberals.

"The finance minister was Floyd Laughren, was he a Liberal?" Serre shot back.

Serrealso took exception to Gravelle repeatedly raising the record of Liberal governments lead by Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

"You can't always go back 10, 15 years ago. We need to move forward," said Serre.

"You're absolutely right, we will move forward with an NDP government," replied Gravelle.

With theTrans Pacific Partnership (TPP)trade deal signed just hours before, it was also on the minds of Nickel Belt candidates.

"TPP means more jobs for Nickel Belt because it removes tariffs on exports such as steel, nickel and industrial machinery," said Laamanen.

But Gravelle said it's hard to know for surewhen the Harper government keeps the details secret.

"If it's such a good thing for Canada and Canadian workers, then why is it a secret?" he said

"If Stephen Harper likes it, we don't like it. Because he's proven in the past that he cannot be trusted."

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