Party leaders fan out for final 48-hour campaign surge

The federal party leaders will be criss-crossing the country this weekend,making their final push as one of the longest federal election campaigns in recentCanadian history winds down to the last 48 hours.

Withall the party platforms unveiled, and no more new promises,the leaders will spend these last frenetic days trying to rally their activists andsupportersto go to the polls on Monday. Andalthough issues like the niqab ban at citizenship oath ceremonies may have captured the spotlight duringthe campaign, thefocus now is mainly on the economy.

"They're all goingto try to show energy, going to try to show enthusiasm, going to try and look like winners," said DavidMcLaughlin, the former chief of staff to BrianMulroney.

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OnSaturday,LiberalLeader JustinTrudeauwill start off in Halifax, head off to Saint John andthen Thunder Bay, Ont., before travellingto Winnipeg, his third stop in the city as the party hopes it has a good chance of flipping four or five ridings in that province. He will end up inB.C. on Sunday, where by all accounts it's an extremely competitive race, before heading back to Quebecfor election day.

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Over the past week, polls have suggested that the Liberals had the momentumheading into this final weekend.But that has beendeflated somewhat bythe resignation of Trudeau'snational campaign co-chairDanGagnier.

Gagnier stepped down after it was revealed hehadsent a detailed letter to fiveTransCanadaCorp. officialsbehind the proposed Energy East pipeline, outlining how they could best lobby a government includinga Liberal government to have the pipeline approved.

While it may not be an October surprise an event that could have a drastic effect on the course of the electionit's certainly an unwanted distraction, as both Conservative Leader Stephen Harper andNDP Leader Tom Mulcairhave sought to exploit the issue and link it toLiberal scandals of the past, including the sponsorship scandal.

'We're not going back'

Mulcair, in particular, has made it a major focus, and at a rally in Edmonton on Friday, the line "We're not going back,"in reference to the sponsorship scandal,became a theme of Mulcair's speech,with supporters repeating the mantra to him en masse.

The crowd in Edmonton was larger than at any rally in thepast two weeks.Key organizers of the NDP, which polls suggest are trailing in third, believethat thosenational polls don't reflect the truth on the ground, asthe party will beusing more paid organizers than ever before and focusing a larger share of its campaign budget on supporting that ground game.

Mulcair'sitinerary will include a swingthroughVancouver, Toronto and Montreal for oversized campaign rallies in an effort to spur the NDP'sget-out-the-vote operation the most expensive and "impressive" in the party's history, according toinsiders.

On Saturday, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will be in Laval, Que., where the Tories are hoping to gain back territory in the Quebec City area.The party is aiming to double itsexisting seat count from fiveto 10 in Quebec.

But Harper is also slated to make a controversial appearance at an event being held in Toronto Saturday night that'sbeing supported by city councillor and former mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug.

Harper is being criticized forattending an event with the notorious former mayor, a former crack cocaine smoker also known for racist and misogynistic tirades. But the Fords have a committedvoter base that may be able todeliver some crucial Toronto votes to the Tories.

Harper will also make a stop in Oakville, Ont., where he will appear withTory candidate Terence Young, who has also sparked some controversy. At a recent all-candidates debate, Young saida federalLiberalgovernment would mandate "legally protected brothels with madams and all that goes with that because the Liberals have promised to legalize the selling of women in Canada."

The Tories havetargetedethnic social conservatives with ads thatclaimTrudeau's plan tolegalize marijuana would make access easier to kids. They have also warnedthatTrudeauwantssafe drug injection sites in neighbourhoods and that he is favour of legalizingprostitution, which wouldput"brothels in our communities."

Meanwhile,Conservative Party organizersareleft with the task of trying to keep or boostmorale over the next days. Several high-level Conservative activists and politicians whospoke to The Canadian Press said spirits arelow inside the party, particularly in Ontario where Liberal numbershave surged.

But the racecould come down to which party is best at mobilizing thevote.The Toriestraditionallyhave an advantage in that area, as many of their supporters are older and more likely to go to the polls, meaning the race could still be very tight.