VOA标准英语10月-Economy Dominates in Canadian Election

This is the last weekend of campaigning before Canada's general election Tuesday. As Craig McCulloch reports, the current world-wide financial crisis have made the economy the driving issue of the campaign.
　

Stephen Harper

When campaigning started in early September, no issues were capturing headlines and opinion polls were showing the ruling Conservative party of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was headed for an easy re-election.

Canada follows the British parliamentary system. Voters in each of 308 constituencies select a Member of Parliament, or MP. The party with the most MPs usually forms the government and that party's leader becomes prime minister.

If the party wins less more than fifty percent of the constituencies, as was the case in the last election in January, 2006, it is considered a minority government.

Before the economic problems on Wall Street started to reverberate¹ globally, the only question was whether Mr. Harper would get a minority or a majority government.

That has now changed, with opposition² parties quickly gaining ground and the Conservatives weakening.

The most recent polls put only four percentage points between the Liberal Party, which is the official opposition, and the ruling Conservatives. The Socialist-oriented New Democratic Party is now close behind the Liberals.

It was not until the last week of the campaign that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a 49 year-old economist³ from the Western city of Calgary, released the party's election platform.

This brought the usual heavy criticism from the opposition parties.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, a former university professor from the predominately French-speaking province of Quebec, has seen his campaign revitalized and his poll numbers rising. His rallies are growing louder with more supporters.

At an event here in Vancouver, the Liberal Leader says the Conservative Party and its leader have been slow to react to the economic turmoil⁴.

"Mr. Harper is coming too little, too late. With little help for the industry and the manufacturing sector⁵ and the aerospace⁶ industry. We have much more in our platform. We have much more in rich tax credit for Research and Development. For buying green machinery⁷ and equipment. To attract investments around the world to here in British Columbia and everywhere in Canada. Much more, but he is coming with this too little to late. His retail⁸ politics is not a vision."

Friday, the conservative government announced a plan to buy insured mortgage pools worth 25 billion dollars Canadian - more than 21 billion dollars U.S. -- to help the country's banks. But the government advocates strict limits on public spending as it deals with the economic crisis.

At a recent campaign event in Vancouver, Mr. Harper said the choice is simple, that Dion's Liberals will increase spending and taxes that will worsen the economic situation. "There will be one of two outcomes: There will either be a Prime Minister Dion who will tackle our economic problems by increasing spending that we can't afford and increasing taxes to pay for it. Or our government, which will keep spending under control and keep taxes going down. Those are the two choices to deal with the economic problems in front of us."

Coming in an increasingly close third place in national opinion polls is the New Democratic Party, or NDP. The party and its leader, Jack⁹ Layton, could possibly form coalition¹⁰ Government with the liberals.

Layton says the conservative prime minister is ignoring the crisis to the detriment¹¹ of everyday Canadians. "There's a whole lot of families that are really struggling to make ends meet and they're watching their savings¹² disappear in front of them. And they're very worried about their pensions and this, what, me worry? attitude that we have seen from Mr. Harper is wrong."

Two smaller political parties are also playing a role in this election.

For the first time, the Green Party and leader Elizabeth May got a place in the televised debate of party leaders earlier this month. They have been polling between 10 and 13 percent nationally.

The separatist Bloc¹³ Quebecois is only running candidates in the province of Quebec and is not expected to be a part of any prospective¹⁴ coalition government.

1 reverberate   

v.使回响，使反响

参考例句：

• The decision will reverberate and will jar the country.这项决定将引起反响并震撼这个国家。
• Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my hear.痛苦呼喊的一遍遍的在我的心中回响。

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

7 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

8 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

9 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 detriment   

n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源

参考例句：

• Smoking is a detriment to one's health.吸烟危害健康。
• His lack of education is a serious detriment to his career.他的未受教育对他的事业是一种严重的妨碍。

12 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

13 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

14 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。