Canada's Chretien under fire in election debate

Prime Minister Chretien with his fellow candidates for prime minister at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Thursday

OTTAWA (Reuters) -- Prime Minister Jean Chretien came under persistent heavy fire on Thursday night in the second and final televised debate of Canada's five-week campaign for the November 27 federal election.

Chretien, 66, who called the election early to try to gain a third successive parliamentary majority, faced withering attacks on everything from patronage and arrogance to health care cuts, but dished out his own retorts as well.

The veteran Liberal leader looked uncomfortable as his opponents attacked him in the English debate. The night before, all four opposition party leaders ganged up on him in a French debate.

"If you can't handle big government, Mr. Chretien, perhaps you should stand aside," Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, Chretien's biggest threat, said in reference to the alleged mismanagement of billions of dollars of job grants.

"There's a great reluctance on the part of Mr. Chretien to go after the criminals," declared Day, who was able to land far more telling blows than he had been able to do in French, a language in which he is less comfortable.

Joe Clark of the Conservative Party said Chretien had clearly been in office too long and abused his power by bringing questionable grants to his home district. "He thinks he made Canada the best country in the world all by himself," Clark said.

"Remember -- he slashed health care and then built fountains in his riding (district) with your money because he thinks he can get away with anything," Clark said.

But Chretien pushed the hot button of abortion in accusing Day of wanting to reopen a debate through a national referendum, noting referendums on Quebec separation had been divisive.

"We have had two referendums. It is very, very divisive in a society, it breaks families and villages and communities. And you want in your programs to have referendums on everything that is controversial in the land," Chretien said.

"We have had peace on the abortion issue since the decision of the Supreme Court in 1988."

Day, who wants to allow citizen-originated referendums as in California or Switzerland, said he opposes abortion but declared that was not Alliance policy.

"The Canadian Alliance doesn't have a position on this particular topic, but we do have a position saying that if citizens want to discuss issues... they can be free to do it," he said.

And Day attacked Chretien for having dared the separatists, during this campaign, to call a third referendum.

Health care, provided by the government in Canada, is another hot issue given the deterioration of the system under spending cuts Chretien ordered to conquer fiscal deficits.

Clark said the prime minister could not forever use the crutch of inherited deficits as an excuse for the cuts: "You're the guy who gutted the Canadian health system."

Day, who has been accused of wanting to set up a two-tier health care system, held up a sign: "No two-tier health care."

He then challenged Chretien to yank Liberal ads accusing him favoring such a system, where the rich get quicker service. "Call me a liar or pull those negative U.S.-style ads," Day said.

Chretien retorted: "Come clean with the Canadian people."

The prime minister called the election on October 22, only 3-1/2 years into his five-year mandate to counter the rise of the Alliance and capitalize on his standing in the polls.

Before last month, Chretien had a 20-30 point lead in the polls. That shrank to 13-16 points by the end of October, but the most recent poll, released on Wednesday, gave Chretien a 22 percent lead over the Alliance.

Part of Day's pitch has been that he is a fresh face with new ideas -- a time for change -- and he points to the fact that Chretien has been in federal politics for 37 years. "Where there is no vision, the people perish," he said.

Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois, which wants to pull Quebec out of Canada, said: "Jean Chretien is a man of the past, a man of confrontation."

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