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Layton to champion working families

VANCOUVER -- New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton pledged on Saturday to renew his push for a federal anti-replacement worker law, as he pledged to defend the interests of Canadian workers in the next Parliament.

“We will stand up for working people. We’ll fight for laws that put working people at the head of the line in front of the banks. We’ll work for pay equity and for fair wages. And we will try once again to bring in laws that get the so called replacement workers out of the picture in national legislation.”

Layton accused Prime Minister Paul Martin of lacking leadership by failing to support an NDP bill that would have protected Telus workers, who were on strike mainly in B.C. and Alberta, fighting for their jobs.

On Saturday, a long list of labour leaders attended Layton’s rally including Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C Federation of Labour; Paul Moist, head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees; Ken Neumann, Canadian director of the United Steelworkers and Tom Dufresne, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse union and Bruce Bell, president of the Telecommunications Workers Union.

In a fiery, and much more aggressive speech than he has generally delivered, Layton portrayed the NDP as the only party that is truly ready to stick up for working families. “We’re going to stand up for our seniors with better long-term care and better homecare and some help with prescription drugs,” Layton said, playing on the theme of the Conservative campaign, Stand up for Canada. “We will stand up for our kids - with better child care, by taking on poverty, by giving students some help. We will defend public, non-profit health care and keep the profiteers out.”

Nor did Layton spare the Conservatives, accusing them of wanting to increase taxes on low income Canadians and team up with premiers of Alberta, B.C and Quebec to speed up the spread of private for-profit health care.

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