OTTAWA -- Encouraged by his party's apparent momentum, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau issued a pointed appeal Monday to conservative-minded voters as he kicked off the final week of the election campaign.
Trudeau made the pitch on a day his tour made several stops in areas captured by his opponents in the last election. They included places where the Liberals finished far behind their rivals in 2011.
His campaign bus rolled into suburban Ottawa, which voters painted blue four years ago, with a specific message to supporters of the former Progressive Conservatives.
Speaking to a room full of his own partisans, Trudeau offered praise for the now-defunct Progressive Conservative party, which merged with the Canadian Alliance in 2003.
Trudeau then heaped criticism on the Canadian Alliance's leader at the time: Stephen Harper, who now leads the fused Conservative party.
"Canada's proud Tory history has been abandoned by a party that has merely assumed a label and co-opted a political tradition," he said in the newly formed riding of Nepean, which was carved from a district held by the Tories.
"Most insulting of all for Progressive Conservatives is how casually and quickly their history has been abandoned.
"How swiftly Stephen Harper's Conservatives laid claim to a proud Canadian institution, then hollowed out its centre and replaced the heart with the divisive, secretive and fearful core."
His attempt to woo red Tories in eastern Ontario came after some national polls suggested his Liberals were front-runners as the campaign entered the home stretch.
The party, however, faces a huge task in its quest for power. It held only 36 seats when Parliament dissolved, including just 13 seats in the crucial Ontario battleground.
On the ground, there were signs Monday of Trudeau's potential gains. His appearances were met by large crowds of supporters, including the event at a local strip mall.
Hundreds of people packed the venue, forcing many to listen to his speech on a speaker from the sidewalk.
Inside the building, Trudeau told the crowd that Conservatives are their neighbours, cousins and parents -- and not their enemies. He said they want a growing economy and safe communities just like they do.
He also credited past prime ministers from the Progressive Conservative party for not using wedge issues that divided people based on religion and citizenship.
"We don't need to convince them to leave the Conservative party, we just need to show them how Stephen Harper's party has left them," Trudeau said.
In recent years, the Harper government has faced criticism from former Progressive Conservative prime ministers, including Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney.
Last month, Clark said the federal government has the capacity to do more to speed up the process of resettling Syrian refugees who are desperately trying to escape war.
He said in an interview at the time that his own government found ways to airlift Vietnamese boat people after he won office in 1979.
"I think everyone recognizes that and we have a tradition of doing more," said Clark, who has also suggested the Harper government's combative approach to international issues has, at times, hurt the country.
In a TV interview last year, Mulroney also chastised Harper for his record on foreign affairs, particularly his frosty relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama and Canada's failure to win a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2010.
Speaking to CTV's Power Play, Mulroney also criticized Harper for his dispute with Beverley McLachlin, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada over the failed appointment of Marc Nadon to the top court.
Trudeau hopes to take advantage of any cracks that could be appear in the foundation of the merged Conservative party.
Later Monday, his campaign was greeted by a huge crowd of cheering supporters outside a Tim Hortons in the Ontario town of Napanee.
"If you're really quiet, you can almost hear somewhere Stephen Harper is busy attacking me," Trudeau said in an unscripted, speech as he stood on a small riser in front of the coffee shop.
"Stephen Harper is not afraid of me -- he's afraid of you. He's afraid of hundreds of Canadians coming out in a Tim Hortons parking lot demanding better."
The Liberal leader started Thanksgiving morning Monday by picking pumpkins with his wife and their kids in a patch in the western Quebec riding of Pontiac -- a district the New Democrats won from the Conservatives in the last election.
The Liberals finished a distant third there in 2011.
Trudeau's tour was scheduled to stop for the night in Toronto, where Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne planned to support four federal Liberal candidates Tuesday.
