Over 500 union and community activists from across the Lower Mainland rallied in downtown Vancouver over the weekend to show their support for NDP leader Jack Layton. The crowd also heard from provincial and national labour leaders including BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair and Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti added.

Georgetti reminded the audience that key labour issues, like a provision to ban the use of scabs in federal labour disputes, were narrowly defeated by Conservative and Liberal MPs in the last Parliament.

"With twelve more elected New Democrats in Ottawa we would have protection from the use of scabs in federal labour law," said Georgetti. "That's the kind of better choice we want to see in the next Parliament and the race here in BC could well determine the balnce of power in that Parliament," he added.

A number of ther speakers including representatives from the Council of Senior Citizen's Organizations (COSCO) talked about the important work the federal NDP has done on health care, citing their push to have the Martin Liberals take a more agressive stand on private, for-profit clinics.

NDP leader Jack Layton reinforced these points by stressing the critical race here in BC. "In the last Parliament we were able to force the Martin government to reverse its tax cut plans and put $4.6 billion instead into affordable housing, public infrastructure and more accessible post-secondary education. With more NDP MPs in the next Parliament, I know we can make a real difference and BC is definitely primed to elect those MPs. In the next two weeks we have to ramp-up our efforts to make sure that we get the break-through that I know we can achieve here in BC," Layton concluded.