Newly confirmed Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff wants his party to have a campaign platform ready for June, but says that doesn't mean he's looking for a spring election.
"I've told my people I want a platform in June," he said at a news conference Sunday.
"And don't derive electoral timetables from that," he added. "You asked me a question, I'm giving you an answer. I'm not playing games with you."
But if there is an election issue for Ignatieff, who was officially crowned Liberal leader on Saturday, it could be employment insurance.
The Liberals are demanding the government enact "urgent" changes to make individuals who've worked 360 hours in the previous 52 weeks eligible for EI -- no matter which province they live in.
"I'm trying to protect these unemployed workers across the country who badly need help and if the government will work with me, we can get it done," Ignatieff said. "If they won't, we'll have to have an election."
Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chr�tien has been urging his party to go to an election. Polls show the Liberals in the lead in popularity under Ignatieff and recessions are never healthy for the sitting government.
Pollster Peter Donolo of the Strategic Counsel says that the EI issue may be a tactical move on the Grits' part, as it is a major issue in hard-hit Ontario.
"The Liberals, who want to gain the lost seats they had in Ontario, are sensitive to this (issue) and are making the pitch," Donolo said. "I think it's a very narrow issue to have an election on but there's no question it is an irritant and plays symbolically to the unemployment concerns people have."
Ignatieff also outlined some of the major policies the party will follow Sunday afternoon, including a cap-and-trade system as part of an environmental strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
That signals a firm move away from his predecessor Dion's Green Shift plan.
"We will not be going into the next election with a carbon tax," Ignatieff said. "We will be going into the next election with a cap-and-trade system with hard caps, set reasonably so that we preserve jobs and meet our environmental objectives."
He also stressed the importance of a gun registry for all firearms.
The Conservative party criticized Ignatieff's speech Saturday night for being light on firm policies and heavy on rhetoric. But the new Liberal leader turned that criticism back on his rivals Sunday.
"People are asking me what my policies are," he said. "You ought to be asking what the government is doing. This is a visionless and directionless government more preoccupied with its own survival than giving Canadians a vision for the future. I've got a vision that will take us to 2017."
Ignatieff vs Harper
Ignatieff has offered tough talk for the sitting prime minister, reiterating his position that Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushes divisive politics to govern the country.
He said Harper's politics are wearing thin with Canadians and the prime minister knows it.
"I have a fundamental disagreement with the Prime Minister about how he handles the country, that is I think he divides, as opposed to unites," Ignatieff told CTV's Question Period in an interview that aired Sunday.
It was the same theme Ignatieff referenced in his speech to Liberal delegates at the Vancouver convention Saturday night.
"For three years you have played province against province, group against group, region against region, individual against individual," he said about Harper.
"When your power was threatened last November you unleashed a national unity crisis and you saved yourself only by sending Parliament home.
"Mr. Harper, you have failed us. If you can't unite Canadians, if you can't appeal to the best in us, we can. We Liberals can build a federalism based on co-operation, not on confrontation."
On Question Period, Ignatieff said the prime minister is "now on his best behaviour."
"I think he had a near-death experience, he's now trying to govern more consensually," Ignatieff said.
But Ignatieff said the message he has been getting from Canadians is that they will not tolerate any more political games.
"Every town I go to, they say: 'Try and make Parliament work. Put your head down, stop the games, get the job done.'"
The Liberal Leader also criticized the sitting government's approach to guiding the Canadian economy towards the future.
Canada needs to become a "knowledge society," Ignatieff said, and must support the universities and researchers that will build it.
Canadians "need a government that gets that and doesn't cut science, but increases funding," Ignatieff said. "And that's a real point of division between us and the Conservatives."
Moving forward, Ignatieff said he intends to continue to hold the government "accountable," but said he will not pick unnecessary fights with the Conservative government.
"I'm not seeking confrontation, because the public doesn't want confrontation. They want us to get the job done," he said.
While he intends to keep the government in check, the Liberal leader admitted he does not foresee a return to a coalition arrangement with his fellow opposition parties.
"I've turned down a coalition once, I don't think I'm going back there," he said.
