Federal parliamentarian Dominic LeBlanc, vice-chair of the Liberal's policy and platform committee, says the party's platform will be ready in just over two weeks - coinciding with the Harper administration's Throne Speech. In fact, a version of that document was available for release back in Apri. But when talk of a spring election turned out to be just that - talk - the party spent the summer revising the platform to come up with "a number of coherent, cohesive national themes that reflect concrete policy proposals that can be understood by the vast majority of Canadians."

Speaking with Public Eye earlier today, Mr. LeBlanc said the fact the Liberals aren't in government has allowed them to develop a more innovative platform. "Frankly, it's a lot more exciting to work on policy proposal when you don't have the straightjacket of some Ottawa bureaucrat telling you successive governments have only been able to do a, b, c," he explained. "We're finding it much easier to be enthusiastic when you can sit down with a group of people in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, who are concerned about gun crimes in their community and look at how to make their community safer and not be lectured by some bureaucrat in Ottawa."

Mr. LeBlanc stated there will be a "very heavy emphasis on sustainable development and climate change" in platform. And he praised the British Columbia government's climate action proposals, noting his party will be staking out "a very aggressive position that Premier (Gordon) Campbell needs a partner in Ottawa that's willing to do something serious around the climate change crisis and not join a group of climate change deniers in Washington and in Canberra as did Mr. (Stephen) Harper last week." The following is an edited transcript of that interview.

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Public Eye What is the present status of platform development for the Liberals right now?

Mr. LeBlanc After Mr. Dion became leader in December he, in early January, asked Bob Rae, Scott Brison, myself and a woman called Joan Bourassa from Alberta to basically bring together a group of people that would start to shape a national election platform for an election that we all thought was going to be in the spring. At the time, the working assumption was that it was very likely we would be in a national election sometime after the last Conservative budget. So we were working on a timetable which said we needed to have a platform ready for the leader to make final decisions on by the beginning of April. And we met that deadline. In other words, we had this spring a platform that was largely finalized. He had sort of a few remaining decisions to make - because there's often too many ideas and not enough money. But then, when we realized we didn't have a spring election, we sort of parked that document on the shelf and took a fair bit of time over the summer - both Mr. (Stephane) Dion himself and Brison and Rae and I, including some of the stuff I'm doing in Vancouver tomorrow - to try and add to it or refine it. And, of course, the government's fiscal circumstances changes. We saw some of these surplus numbers last weekend. They're playing a game that they criticized us for doing - hiding big surpluses. Which means the government has more fiscal room than we were budgeting in our platform. So we're going to revise it again. And we will be ready with a platform document for the leader by the time the Throne Speech document is delivered. So in two and a half weeks, we need to be ready again as we were in April with a platform. Sean, there aren't going to be many surprises let's say - in the sense that Mr. Harper has, in our view, failed to deal with the high cost of post-secondary education. He has not done enough, in our view, around poverty - working families and poverty, senior citizens on very modest incomes (many of them widows) or a million children that live in families below the poverty line. He obviously hasn't done enough on climate change. This province is leading the way, in many ways, with Premier Campbell's announcement last week which - in our view - is absolutely in the right direction. Mr. Dion himself and his leadership has talked about three pillars. The platform is going to reflect those ideas. But a very, very heavy emphasis on sustainable development and climate change. And, as I say just in conversations even this morning, we're going to be taking, I hope, a very aggressive position that Premier Campbell needs a partner in Ottawa that's willing to do something serious around the climate change crisis and not join a group of climate change deniers in Washington and in Canberra as did Mr. Harper last week.

Public Eye Now, you mention a very strong focus on the environment and sustainable development (in platform). I wonder how useful that is though from a political, from an election standpoint given the fact that all political parties in this country - including the Conservatives - are making representations on this particular issue? It seems like a motherhood issue at this particular juncture in time.

Mr. LeBlanc Yeah, Sean, that's a fair question. But I think if you ask people, do they believe for a minute that Mr. Harper is sincere about wanting to deal with the climate change crisis or is he simply responding to public opinion polls which show massive support - particularly amongst younger generation voters and arguably people on the West Coast who are, in many ways, leading the issue in terms of Canadian public opinion - I don't think Mr. Harper is sincere at all. If you look at the David Suzukis and the Al Gores and some of the people that seem to be quite positive about the provincial plan here, they have all said that Mr. Harper's intensity based targets, this Pacific group of companies, is basically a refuge for climate change deniers. All the code words are there. Mr. Harper is not interested in hard caps. He's not interested in carbon trading systems. He's not interested in tackling issues as difficult as the oil sands.

Public Eye You mention that, over the summer, you've been further tweaking, further refining the platform. What specifically has that involved - what specifics changes have you made other than simply reacting to government's fiscal position?

Mr. LeBlanc What it probably did Sean is help us over the summer come to terms with the fact that a national election platform can't answer every problem and speak to every regional issue. We have to come up with a number of coherent, cohesive national themes that reflect concrete policy proposals that can be understood by the vast majority of Canadians. Previous platforms - when the Liberals were in government - tended to look like Throne Speeches or federal budgets. A Liberal Party campaigning from opposition needs to realize that we're not tied to every department of finance memo that was ever sent around three years ago.

Public Eye So you're saying there's more blue sky territory in this particular document?

Mr. LeBlanc There's more blue sky and there's a greater opportunity to listen to the grassroots of the Liberal Party. When you're in government - and I can say I've never been a minister - you tend to think that the Ottawa bureaucrats have simple answers to complex problems. They often don't. And we've had to make some tough choices. We'd obviously like to spend very, very large amounts of money on infrastructure. In order to do that, we'd probably have to make some choices around other areas where we're either willing to reduce spending or not move as quickly as we'd like in some other area. In other words, the summer gave us a chance to really sharpen what is the fiscal circumstance of our platform - to make sure it's responsible. And things like a further GST cut down to five percent are completely irresponsible because it's going to take six billion dollars out of the government coffers disproportionately from wealthier people then from lower income people. And it means the government may not have the money to, for example, partner with Premier Campbell on climate change or deal with some of the infrastructure or Gateway challenges that this province is facing.

Public Eye You mentioned the involvement of grassroots. Now, of course, the Red Ribbon Taskforce recommended strong participation from the grassroots of the Liberal Party when it comes to development of the platform. How has that occurred?

Mr. LeBlanc Well, for example, last Friday and Saturday in Ottawa we had a very, very productive two day meeting with the national policy committee of the party which brings together 15 elected policy chairs from each province and territory in Ottawa. These are volunteer party members - but elected to that particular function in their particular province and territory. We had a very good working discussion with those people - and out of that will come some changes to some of the draft documents we prepared. Tonight I'm sitting down with the VP for policy of the Liberal Party of Canada in British Columbia, Nancy Singh. We've brought together from different constituency associations the policy reps. We've been trying to do that. Scott Brison and Bob Rae have done that extensively - as has Mr. Dion. I hosted, for example, in Shediac, New Brunswick on two occasions this summer working groups with local business people - one with Mr. Goodale this past Wednesday and with Mr. Dion himself in Halifax. So, frankly, it's a lot more exciting to work on policy proposal when you don't have the straightjacket of some Ottawa bureaucrat telling you successive governments have only been able to do a, b, c. We're finding it much easier to be enthusiastic when you can sit down with a group of people in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, who are concerned about gun crimes in their community and look at how to make their community safer and not be lectured by some bureaucrat in Ottawa.

Public Eye Are you planning on having regional platforms, as has happened in the past in B.C.?

Mr. LeBlanc Yes, we hope so. I know that the group here has been working on a number of sort of drafts. Mr. Dion has told us that we should encourage the B.C. agenda that has been - to our view - very successful in the past. I know some colleagues of mine from the caucus in this province have been working on with some of the party people. So that answer is yes. Some regions tend to do it - others don't. B.C. and Alberta have traditionally been amongst the most structured and organized (party wings). And, in this province, it's led to considerable success.

Public Eye How useful is it consulting with the grassroots? I'm thinking, in the past, the Kingston Liberal Conference, for example, which was so influential in shaping the future of the Liberal Party...

Mr. LeBlanc ...and the Aylmer Conference.

Public Eye ...that's right - for the most part simply involved, for lack of a better term, big brains not the rank and file. So is this really a helpful process to involve the grassroots?

Mr. LeBlanc I think there's room for both. In other words, you're right. You've identified two of these meetings that were sort of turning points in Liberal Party thinking. But a great deal of the identification of problems and issues is done at the grassroots. In other words, if you bring a group of policy experts together to deal with issues like child poverty, it's only because you're seeing in communities across the country - including this province - way, way too many families with children struggling to pay rent and cover family expenses. Grassroots is sort of a patronizing term, to be honest. I'm not sure that is the right one. We all tend to use it. But public consultations - or even consultations with party members - are most helpful in identifying common problems and frequently common solutions. There's no doubt there's also room for, as you say, big brains or some leading thinkers that get together around a particular problem. And we have done one around the auto sector in Ontario. We're looking at doing one around the forestry industry. This province can teach the rest of the country a lot about some of the challenges here. There's room to do both. Mr. Dion himself has spent a great deal of his life in those policy think tank kinds of discussions. The experience of him going out and doing ordinary, grassroots policy consultation has been very helpful for him. He, perhaps, hasn't been exposed to a great deal of that in his professional career. So he, I know, has said to us over the last six months that for him to get out and have an evening in somebody's kitchen with a group of local businesspeople talking about challenges around infrastructure and urban communities has been good for him too.

Mr. LeBlanc Final question for you: you've spoken a lot about climate action, obviously. But, of course, there is always the issue of healthcare which, arguably, to most Canadians is a more immediate and pressing issue. Where does the party currently stand when it comes to the prominence of healthcare in its platform?

Public Eye You're right to identify that - it's obviously going to be a big part of our platform because it's so important to every part of the country, Canadians in every region of the country. One of the difficulties, from our perspective, is a pretty serious shortage of doctors, nurses and health professionals. It's more acute in some regions of the country than others. It's a big problem in some rural communities. But access to trained healthcare professionals is a problem. The high cost of prescription medication is a problem. And, for example, some parts of the country don't have any catastrophic drug coverage. The big challenge around the delivery of healthcare is it’s a provincial jurisdiction. The federal government has tended to simply be a financial partner - in our view a partner that can be more generous. But it's also got to be in a way that brings about change. To spend more on a healthcare system that doesn't bring about some fundamental restructuring around homecare, community care and PharmaCare and prevention and wellness issues, in our view we're be missing the boat. And, again, my layman's knowledge of British Columbia would tell us we have a lot to learn from this province around some wellness initiatives. My sense is that B.C. is ahead of other jurisdictions in terms of trying to focus resources on health prevention and wellness. Even look at issues as difficult as the drug problems. This province is a leading jurisdiction in trying to tackle difficult questions like illegal drug use in a way, frankly, that's more enlightened than other parts of the country.