Page 2 - ATD 17OCT,2015

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UP FRONTSaturday 17 October 2015
Conservative Canadian leader fighting to stay in power
ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) — Conser-
vative Prime Minister Ste-
phen Harper’s nearly 10
years in power could end
next week, along with his
dream of shattering Can-
ada’s image as a liberal
bastion.
Harper, one of the lon-
gest-serving Western lead-
ers, is seeking a rare fourth the Keystone XL pipeline,”
term in Monday’s election
but polls show him narrow-
ly trailing Liberal leader
Justin Trudeau, the son of
late Prime Minister Pierre
Trudeau, one of Canada’s
most charismatic politi-
cians.
A Trudeau victory could
ease Canada’s tensions
with the administration of
President Barack Obama,
whose reluctance to ap-
prove the Keystone XL
pipeline has damaged
ties between the two ma-
jor trading partners. The
Alberta-to-Texas pipeline
is important to Canada,
which needs infrastructure
to export its growing oil
sands production.
Trudeau supports the proj-
ect but it’s not a do-or-die
issue like it is for Harper,
who represents a district
in oil-rich Alberta. The Lib-
eral candidate said Friday
repairing relations will be a
top priority.
“The relationship between
Canada and the United
UN chief marks World Food Day at Expo 2015 world’s fair
COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press
MILAN (AP) — Calling hun-
ger “a terrible injustice,”
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon on Friday
marked World Food Day
with a visit to the Milan
Expo World’s Fair, which is
focused on food security
and nutrition. Bidding to in- combatting hunger and
vigorate a global commit-
ment to eradicating hun-
ger by 2030, Ban called for
a pledge “for food security
for all the people around
the world — to build a
global movement to end
hunger. This will go hand in
hand with greater health,
economic development
and social inclusion for in-
dividuals and societies.”
States, that has been
so soured over the past
10 years between our
prime minister and Presi-
Conservative leader Stephen Harper pauses for a moment as he attends a campaign event at
the J.P. Bowman tool and die company in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
dent Obama especially,
is much larger than just
Trudeau said. “That has
actually been a point of
frustration for the Ameri-
cans that I’ve spoken with,
that all this government
wants to talk about is a
single pipeline project.”
Harper has done what
many thought impossible
since coming to power in
2006: He won three con-
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, shakes hands
with Italian soccer legend Roberto Baggio, at the Expo World’s
Fair on the occasion of the UN World Food Day in Rho, near Milan, which include eliminating
Italy, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015.
With nearly 800 million peo-
ple hungry in the world,
secutive elections and
nudged a traditionally
center-left country to the
right. He gradually low-
ered sales and corporate
taxes, avoided climate
change legislation, sup-
ported the oil industry
against environmentalists
and backed Israel’s right-
wing government. He has
put a more conservative
face on the nation of 35
million, deemphasizing
health care and multicul-
turalism as the things that
make Canadians proud. sor at the University of
For Harper, a loss to the
(Stefano Porta/ANSA via AP)
malnutrition is emerging as
a global focal point, not
just at World Food Day but
Liberals would be per-
sonally devastating. For-
mer colleagues say his
long-term goal is nothing
(Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) Mail/Nanos Nightly Track-
short of redefining what it
means to be Canadian,
killing the long-held no-
tion that the Liberals — the
party of long-time leaders
Pierre Trudeau and Jean
Chretien — are Canada’s
natural party.
“His whole being is about
destroying the Liberals,”
said Robert Bothwell, a
Canadian history profes-
Toronto. “If Justin beats
also at the U.N. General
Assembly last month when
world leaders backed the
U.N.’s 17 sustainable goals,
poverty and hunger in 15
years. The papal encycli-
cal on the climate in June
also addressed the issue.
“Hunger is more than a
lack of food,” Ban said.
“It’s a terrible injustice.”
Speakers Friday also noted
that hunger is a factor be-
hind the migrant crisis.
“People seek refuge or
migrate to other lands, to
other countries when there
is no opportunity, no food
and no hope at home,”
WFP Executive Director Er-
tharin Cousin said.
Cousin told The Associated
Harper, Harper will just go
through the roof or maybe
he’ll melt like the Wicked
Witch of the West.”
The Liberals lead the Con-
servatives by almost 6 per-
centage points. Accord-
ing to the CTV/Globe and
ing Poll, the Liberals are at
36.5 percent, followed by
the Conservatives at 30.6
percent. The New Demo-
crats, a leftist party that
moved to the center in a
bid to get elected for the
first time, are at 23.5 per-
cent. The margin of error
for the survey of 1,200 re-
spondents is 2.8 percent-
age points.
A minority government in
the 338-seat Parliament
appears likely no matter
which party wins the most
seats. That would mean
the winning party would
have a shaky hold on
power and need to rely
on another party to pass
legislation. Harper has said
he’ll step down as Conser-
vative leader if his party
loses.
But Antonia Maioni, a po-
litical science professor at
Montreal’s McGill Univer-
sity, is not counting Harper
out, noting the Conserva-
tives have a strong and
growing base and “after
10 years of power, per-
haps against all odds, is at
least competitive to form
a government.”q
Press that there is concern
that the current refugee
crisis is just “the tip of the
iceberg” if issues of pover-
ty and hunger are not ad-
dressed. By 2040, he said,
an estimated 83 percent
of the population will live
in more vulnerable Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
Italian officials presented
the secretary-general with
the Milan Charter, signed
by more than 1 million
people, including some
but not all of the visiting
national delegations dur-
ing the six-month world’s
fair, containing individual
commitments aimed at
helping secure food and
water for the world’s grow-
ing population.q