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With only five days of campaigning left, Quebec party leaders are into their final blitz, as the Liberals and the Parti Qubcois take aim at some of their traditional strongholds that swung over to the Coalition Avenir Qubec in the most recent election.

There are also a handful of hotly contested swing ridings being targeted by the three main parties.

The strategies used in the last days before the April 7 vote to reconquer or salvage those seats will say a great deal about the strength and weaknesses of their campaigns.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois is striking hard at ridings held by the Coalition Avenir Qubec in areas north and south of the Island of Montreal, where she is spending most of the final week of the campaign.

Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard is taking aim at the Quebec City region, all but abandoned by the PQ, leaving the CAQ in a two-way race to salvage its traditional base of support in Quebec City. The CAQ is also trying to hold onto seats it won the last time in the suburbs outside of Montreal.

And all eyes are on central Quebec in the ridings around Trois-Rivires, Drummondville and Sherbrooke. The regions seats are held by a mix of all three parties and had several close races the last election. The Liberals and the PQ have been in and out of the region almost every other day, hoping to turn enough CAQ supporters to make important gains.

The campaign was marked by controversies over national unity, ethnic and linguistic minorities and corruption. So much so that Mr. Couillard lamented that his daily policy announcements have passed with little notice.

I smile when people say this election has had no proposals. Weve made one every day since the start, Mr. Couillard said. We really have to try to avoid falling into cynicism.

The Liberals arent the only ones that have been the target of attacks. According to an anonymous source in a Radio-Canada news report, Ms. Maroiss husband, Claude Blanchet, allegedly participated in PQ fundraising activities that may have violated Quebecs election law.

Ms. Marois and Mr. Blanchet denied the charges. His lawyer, Richard Vachon, was considering taking court action claiming the report was libellous and defamatory. Mr. Vachon specializes in defamation lawsuits having successfully represented media magnate and now PQ candidate Pierre Karl Pladeau in a lawsuit against the Socit Radio-Canada.

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Quebec parties target swing ridings in final election blitz

AAP SA Opposition Leader Steven Marshall says he is not convinced Labor can serve its full term.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall has threatened to use the tight numbers in South Australia's hung parliament to possibly bring down the Labor government.

Mr Marshall is not convinced the minority government can serve its full term and will keep the Liberals on a "war footing" to be ready to take over.

The Liberal leader has not shied away from using the numbers in the house to defeat the government on key legislation and possibly issues of confidence, if government MPs are absent for votes without good reason.

"People are elected to serve in the parliament," Mr Marshall told reporters on Wednesday.

"If they're not here when votes are taken, then they do it at their peril."

When parliament returns in May, Labor will have 24 votes on the floor of the House of Assembly, just two more than the Liberals 22.

But that slim majority comes courtesy of independent MP Geoff Brock, who decided to back Labor after the March 15 election.

Labor must also appoint a Speaker while a second independent, Bob Such, is expected to be absent for some time as he battles a brain tumour.

Mr Marshall said he still believed Mr Brock had made the wrong decision and would continue to try to change the MP's mind.

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SA Liberals keen to use parliament numbers

OTTAWA An apparent plan by the Ontario Liberals to turn their next budget into a month-long series of image-boosting announcements has been blown by a leak to the Progressive Conservatives of a preliminary schedule of the events.

Traditionally, budgets were kept rigidly secret until the finance minister got up to give a speech and revealed major new spending and taxes for the first time. That secrecy has lessened in recent years, with governments at all levels dripping out bits of their plans in advance to get maximum bang out of them. But even by that standard, the 39 events contained in the calendar released by the Tories, leading up to an anticlimactic presentation of the actual budget on May 1, would have been extraordinary.

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of drafting civil servants to do the Liberals campaigning for them through what he called a budget leaking team.

Until now, it had been kept secret, he said in the legislature. We did hear from whistleblowers within the civil service who are very concerned that you are now drafting Ontario public servants to do the work of the Ontario Liberal Party. Its not their job. They have a job to do but its not to be Liberal party staffers.

Wynne replied that of course the government has a communications plan to explain whats in the budget.

It is normal, when ministers make spending announcements, for civil servants to help organize their appearances and answer questions about government policy. Its just that those detailed announcements are supposed to come after the annual budget is released, not before.

The plan that fell into the Tories hands is not quite current: it includes details suggesting it was a draft prepared between March 4 and March 20. It includes the sketchiest possible entries about releasing a poverty-reduction report on Monday and an event touting consumer protection on Tuesday. Those events didnt happen; on the document, there are blanks where the details should be.

On the other hand, Finance Minister Charles Sousa is to deliver an in-depth analysis of Ontarios economic future Wednesday, right on schedule.

Where there are details, they describe some big spending. The biggest tickets are a $2-billion capital investment to support (1) school consolidations to reduce underused space and (2) repair and school maintenance, and a new $2.5B 10-year Jobs and Prosperity Fund to attract significant business investments.

The document also notes a $300-million plan to provide support to front-line public sector workers who deliver important services to most vulnerable and an investment of close to $730M over three years to address critical pressures and support long-term transformation of developmental services (and significantly reduce wait-lists).

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Reevely: Provincial Tories blow lid off Liberals budget plans

Jindal Calls on Liberals to Be Tolerant of All Americans #39; Religious Views
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) sits down with an exclusive interview with The Foundry #39;s Genevieve Wood.

By: The Heritage Foundation

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Jindal Calls on Liberals to Be Tolerant of All Americans' Religious Views - Video

Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals
John Buehrens questions the fundamentalist reading of the Bible, offering those with a liberal or progressive outlook ways to reclaim the Bible from literali...

By: Forum Network

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Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals - Video