The Globe and Mail has named Ed Broadbent as nation builder for 2005. Paul Dewar has the same foot size as Ed Broadbent – and that’s a good thing, because he’s got really big shoes to fill. And the good thing for Ottawa Centre is – you have the chance to get two great MPs in a row.

Friends, welcome to the New Year. It’s the time of year when people try and quit smoking, lose weight. And a really good time to quit voting Liberal, and lose some deadweight that hasn’t delivered for people in 12 years.

The holidays are over and the New Year’s begun.  And never has it been more true to say out with the old, in with the new. 

Because in three weeks’ time, people are going to vote to change politics. The kind of change Canadians want and need. Together, we’re going to change politics.  Change it for good. 

And you know why I know that’s going to happen? Because I believe in Canadians.  The ordinary working people who built this country.  Who care for this country.  

Wherever our campaign’s gone, we’ve met ordinary people who believe in themselves.  Who want the kind of change the NDP is offering. Change that helps people and respects them. Make no mistake, politics is going to change.  

Real change that comes from people of this country who are tired of being played by Paul Martin’s Liberals. 

In Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, I met seniors who want nothing more than dignity in retirement.  And respect from the society they contributed to for so long. 

I know what it’s like. I was frustrated as I watched my own mother struggle to care for the man she loved, as he was slipping away to Parkinson’s disease. We eventually got my father the care he needed. 

But that’s not good enough – in Dartmouth, I heard from a woman – Eleanor Moriaty – who had to quit her job as a teacher to care for her 93-year-old mother – there was no bed in a long-term-care home.

That is a disgrace. But I’m hopeful because wherever I go, people are turning disgrace into resolve. Resolve that this time will be different – that this time, they’re going to vote for the change our seniors deserve.

Because make no mistake, politics is going to change. Change is coming when people vote NDP. 

In Toronto, I met children who need quality child care and young people eager to make their way in the world.  

I heard from Rebecca Lee – who has been looking for quality child care for her lovely daughter Madelaine. It’s not fair that Rebecca can’t return to work – secure in the knowledge her daughter is safe and being nurtured.

When I was teaching, I watched kids in my classroom almost fall asleep because they were working so hard at part-time jobs to pay tuition. They want nothing more than opportunity at the start of their lives.  Opportunity that should come from being young, not well-to-do.

I’m saddened by the unfairness to our youth, but I’m hopeful as well. Hopeful because people are turning unfairness into resolve. Resolve that this time will be different – that this time, they’re going to vote for the change our young people deserve.

Because make no mistake, politics is going to change. Change made by New Democrats.

In Regina, I stood where public health care began. I was disappointed at how Liberals are failing to protect our health care from profit, but I’m hopeful as well.

Hopeful because wherever I go, people are turning disappointment into resolve.  

Resolve that this time will be different – that this time, they’re going to vote for the change that keeps profit out of our public health care system.

Canadians know they can count on New Democrats, and need New Democrats in Parliament, to protect public health care and to make it better.

Make no mistake, politics is going to change. New Democrats will be that change.

The kind of change I’m talking about began this spring.  When, thanks to a million more people voting NDP, we rewrote the budget. The first federal NDP budget in Canada!

We got results for people. We got a lot done.  And we want to do more. Because change started in the spring. The kind of change people had waited more than a decade for.  And why did it happen? Because people voted for it.

If those million people had voted Liberal, profitable banks and oil companies would get a tax break instead of students getting a break on tuition. 

That was Mr. Martin’s choice. He was wrong. We made better choices – and got results for working families. And the fact is the Liberal Party of Paul Martin is one that Pierre Trudeau wouldn’t recognize. Just look at the budget HE wanted to pass – one that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives voted for.

Not a cent to build affordable housing.  Let tuition and pollution keep going up.  Provide no protection for workers’ wages, and keep breaking our promises on foreign aid.

Today’s Liberal Party isn’t what it once was. And for anyone considering voting for it because they think Liberals are the same as the NDP, just remember. Mr. Martin’s budget this spring did have an opposition leader supporting it.  His name was Stephen Harper.

So voting Liberal isn’t being smart – it’s being played.  Played by a broken Liberal Party, by a leader who doesn’t know what he believes. Mr. Martin hasn’t earned the right to speak for Canada’s values. 

Leadership isn’t sloughing off yet another RCMP investigation – this one right into the centre of the Martin government. Leadership isn’t creating a locker-room culture in the centre of government – where the boys believe parents will waste child care dollars on “beer and popcorn”, and women are compared to dogs. And leadership isn’t picking values of convenience.

Leadership is about demonstrating conviction when values really count.

Outside of this election, I didn’t see Paul Martin working to keep Canada out of Iraq.  I didn’t see him working for equality for lesbian and gay people.  I don’t see him standing up to George Bush on softwood lumber, to keep jobs here in Canada.

Mr. Martin wasn’t there. And how can he claim credit for others’ principles, when he clearly had none of his own. How can he lecture anyone on the Charter while embracing 33 Liberal MPs who voted against equality. How can he pick a phoney fight with the Americans on climate change with a record like his? 

How can he say he's going to clean up government when on his very first chance to show principle since the release of Justice Gomery's report on the culture entitlement - on the fundamental matter of Ministerial responsibility - he failed the test. 

This time, people are going to vote for the kind of change they want.

Friends, confusing the future of the Liberal Party with the future of Canada risks tearing our country apart. After nearly losing the last referendum, Liberals did what they do best. They tried to buy Quebecers’ loyalty. It turned out to be a corrupt kickback scheme to benefit the Liberal Party and their well-connected friends.

As a result, Liberal corruption is fuelling an increase in support for the breakup of our country.  

To Quebecers today, I say this: You will never get the kind of Canada you want unless you vote for it. A Canada without Liberal corruption.  

But a Quebec respected by your fellow Canadians, who’ll work with you to build on the values we share. That’s change. The kind of change that can only happen if you vote for it.

And that message is true for all Canadians: You’ll never get the change you want unless you vote for it. And never get the politics you want by rewarding the parties that betray your trust. Change is in the air here in Canada. But that change does not – cannot -- come from the Conservatives.

It won’t come from the Conservatives. 

In the last Parliament, the NDP got investments in public transit, in education, in affordable housing. 

Can you name anything the Conservatives accomplished? Under whatever name they’ve been calling themselves.

That’s why, in British Columbia, in Saskatchewan, in Oshawa, Selkirk and beyond – New Democrats will be defeating Conservatives. Because people are going to vote the for Canada they want. For the party that will get results for people. For the NDP. 

For some, it will mean voting NDP for the first time. Some people voted Liberal in the past, but know that enough is enough – that it’s time for a change. They know the NDP will clean up politics and defend the values we hold dear.

Some voted Conservative in the past – but want an MP who is effective, who gets things done. 

But whether they voted Liberal or Conservative in the past, people will find that voting NDP is the right thing to do – the right kind of change. The kind of change that gets results for ordinary Canadians, for working families. The kind of change we won this spring with our budget. The kind of change we’re proposing in this campaign.

We’ll fight to protect things that really matter to working families and ordinary Canadians.

We’ll clean up Liberal corruption. 
We’ll provide the care our parents deserve. 
We’ll help give our children the opportunity they need to succeed. 
And we’ll protect public health care and keep profit out. 
Every single NDP vote means a vote to change politics. Every single NDP MP will be a voice for getting results.

Over the next three weeks, I’ll be asking people to vote for the change they really want.

On January 23rd, I’m asking Canadians to vote for the NDP. And send Paul Dewar to Parliament – to make sure Ottawa Centre is part of that change!

Happy New Year.