OTTAWA — With the French-language debate behind them, party leaders hit the campaign trail running today.
Both NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau offered new election promises on forestry and immigration respectively.
Mulcair said and NDP government would pump $105 million over three into the forestry sector.
Trudeau, meanwhile, is promising to make it easier to re-unite immigrant families.
Mulcair was working the Quebec City region, looking to shore up support in the province which has been his party's base since the so-called orange wave of 2011. Forestry is a pillar of the provincial economy.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was also in Quebec, with a scheduled appearance in a riding which went to the NDP by a razor-thin edge four years ago.
Trudeau was in Brampton, working a vote-rich region with a lot of electoral clout.
Mulcair said an NDP government would direct $55 million to forestry manufacturing facilities, steer $40-million to forestry for research and spend $10 million to promote Canadian wood products abroad.
Trudeau promised to immediately double the number of entry applications for parents and grandparents of new immigrants to 10,000.
He also said he would also make it easier for immigrants to come in if they already have Canadian siblings.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe followed a strong debate performance by saying he's caught a second wind in the campaign.
He kept a focus on the niqab issue, which has become an unlooked-for touchstone in the campaign. Although Harper opposes veils at citizenship ceremonies, Duceppe says they have no place on either side of any public service.
Green party Leader Elizabeth May, who says her party has real prospects in Quebec, was in Montreal, hoping to make that wish a reality.
