Canada's Chretien turns to Quebec to ignite campaign

SAINT TIMOTHEE, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, trying to fire up a lackluster reelection campaign, returned on Tuesday to the hot-button issue of Quebec separatism, warning that a vote for separatists would be a vote for entrapment.

The main challenger to Chretien's Liberal party in the French-speaking province of Quebec is the separatist Bloc Quebecois, with which the Liberals are neck and neck in the polls.

The prime minister warned that voting for the Bloc would hasten another referendum on independence from Canada. Quebecors tell the pollsters by a wide margin they do not want another referendum.

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"It's Parizeau's lobster trap that is coming back to the table," he told a crowd of 200 mostly graying supporters in this town southwest of Montreal.

That was a reference to a remark in 1995 by former Quebec separatist premier Jacques Parizeau that if a bare majority of Quebecers voted for sovereignty they would be trapped and the province would be led inevitably to independence. Parizeau came within half a percentage point of winning a 1995 referendum on separating from Canada.

But in a telling sign of Chretien's difficulty in building enthusiasm, the Quebec warning generated little fire and a crowd of protesting truck drivers outside the breakfast rally were about as numerous as the Liberal supporters.

Chretien is the clear front-runner in the November 27 election campaign, with a lead of 12 to 19 points in the polls nationally, but he is fighting to rebuild the enthusiasm that elected him in 1993 and 1997 and prevent erosion to the four other main parties.

"People are very blase about this election. They know Jean Chretien will be reelected," political scientist Louis Balthazar of Quebec City's Laval University, told Reuters.

To prevent overconfidence, Chretien pointed to the deadlocked U.S. election to say: "Every vote counts. Every village counts. Every street counts. Every home counts."

Chretien's audience gave polite applause but from coast to coast, including in his native Quebec, he has often been unable to match the numbers flocking to see and hear Stockwell Day, leader of the Canadian Alliance party, which is expected to give the Liberals the most competition nationally.

Analysts suggest some of Day's attraction may be the novelty factor of a telegenic new leader. Others may be excited finally to see someone talking their language, whether it be on low taxes, small government or on crime.

Day, 50 years old against Chretien's 66, addressed a rally on Monday night of about 800 in New Brunswick -- in the Maritimes region, where the Alliance is only in third place. He often draws crowds that size in Ontario, sometimes as high as 1,500.

But because of Alliance stumbles over health care and the possibility of citizen-originated referendums, Day has been unable to translate those crowds into a rise above the 30 percent level in the polls. Chretien stands at 40 to 44 percent.

On Monday and Tuesday Day tried to turn the spotlight away from the dispute over whether he supports a two-tier health-care system to crime -- an area where the Alliance believes the Liberals are particularly vulnerable.

"There is too much emphasis on the rights of criminals rather than the rights of victim," Day told a news conference in Toronto.

He said serious violent criminals should have to serve consecutive rather than concurrent sentences and prisoners should not be treated to pleasant cottages.

"We should not be sending the message that serving time means playing golf, horseback riding and watching big screen TVs," he said.

If Day gains a few more points in the polls, there is a real possibility that Chretien will lose his majority in Parliament, but the prime minister brushed off that possibility in a later radio interview in Montreal.

"We're going to keep our majority, I'm almost sure. Everybody wants a majority government," he said.

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