Harper, chief rival barnstorm ahead of today’s Canada vote

OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservative prime minister and his Liberal rival crisscrossed the country Monday in a final day of campaigning before parliamentary elections today.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has had a tenuous hold on power since the 2006 elections and is forced to rely on the opposition to pass legislation, called the vote in hopes of winning the 155 seats needed for a majority in the 308-seat lower house of Parliament.

But Harper, the first G-7 leader to face election since the global credit crisis worsened, has been hurt by his slow reaction to the market meltdown.

Harper and his chief rival, Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, hopped across the country from the Maritime Provinces on the Atlantic to the city of Vancouver on the Pacific in a last-minute blitz of campaign stops.