McNeil, Baillie trade shots as campaign enters final full week
Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil and Tory Leader Jamie Baillie put to rest any question of whom each views as the biggest challenge in this election as the two laced into each other on Monday for perceived shortcomings.
Baillie started the day at a rally with about 100 people in Halifax where he encouraged supporters to get out and spread the party's message on health care and — in particular — that the Tory plan is best equipped to meet people's needs.
"People are very unhappy waiting so long for important surgeries [and] too many families [are] without a doctor," he said, calling health care the No. 1 issue in the campaign.
Baillie also revisited his party's plan to boost mental health supports in schools, create more access in general for mental health and to hire more doctors and nurses.
He criticized McNeil's refusal to say there is a crisis in the health-care system, pointing to a growing list of doctors speaking out and a recent community meeting in Cape Breton that drew hundreds of people.
"There is a crisis in our health-care system," Baillie said in a message to McNeil. "You can stick your head in the sand. We're going to hold our heads up high and fix this problem."
With a little more than a week to go, Baillie said he thinks the Tories and Liberals are tied.
"We're the only party now that can replace them. A lot of people are coming to us because they want to replace a pretty mean-spirited government that's just cut things for the last few years with one that I want to lead, which reaches out to people and is optimistic about the future."
McNeil accused Baillie of fearmongering to get votes.
Across the harbour in Dartmouth, the Liberal leader countered with his own criticisms of Baillie, suggesting cuts would come under the Progressive Conservatives, whom he accused of not having a fiscally accurate platform.
Detailing his own party's plans to invest millions in affordable housing and income support, McNeil noted there are no such investments in the Tory plan.
He also repeated an earlier criticism that the Tory platform is predicated on getting hundreds of millions of dollars from Ottawa for health-care infrastructure, which the federal government has said as recently as this month would not be coming.
'Vague on vulnerable people'
All of that means cuts must come somewhere, said McNeil, and he left the most pointed criticism to Dartmouth North candidate Joanne Bernard.
"Mr. Baillie's vision is very vague on vulnerable people," she said.
"Nowhere in his platform is there rent supplements. Nowhere in his platform is there income security. And, personal to me, nowhere in his platform is anything on gender-based violence."
Parties answer criticism
The Tories later sent out an email pointing to cuts the Liberals made that affected vulnerable people during their mandate. A statement from the Tories said there would be no cuts to social assistance rates if they are elected.
The Liberals, meanwhile, argued only their health-care plan is fully costed and balanced.
As evidence, they pointed to the Tory plan to hire 22 new nurse practitioners at a cost of $3 million over four years, something the Grits said is not possible when a nurse practitioner costs about $150,000 per year. The Tories say the remaining money would come from the budget for new collaborative-care teams.
