The former Ontario education minister, who has been criticized by some Liberals for his French-language skills, has placed a plan for a national day-care system at the forefront of his campaign.

Kennedy has received plaudits from educators and parents for bringing labour peace to Ontario schools after years of strikes, lockouts and work-to-rule campaigns.

But building a national profile could be a challenge, analysts say, as Kennedy's only cabinet job has been in Ontario.

Following is a summary of Kennedy's positions on several key issues.

Afghanistan

Kennedy has made the mission in Afghanistan a key issue, calling it a "character test" for the country.

Gerard Kennedy, alongside his wife Jeanette and supporters, gives a thumbs up sign in front of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa Thursday, April 27, 2006. (CP / Tom Hanson)

At a meeting of Young Liberals at Ryerson University during the summer, he called for Canada to pull out of the war in Afghanistan outright unless NATO changes the mission.

He said that by focusing solely on military aims and disregarding development, "Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper is making the same mistakes the Bush administration made in Iraq and it will lead to long-term failure."

Kennedy pointed out that Afghanistan is facing three crises: an opium crisis; a development crisis; and a security crisis.

"The international community and the Afghan people must deal with the opium and development crises before lasting security can become reality," Kennedy said. "The biggest failure in Afghanistan to date has been the way the international community has alienated the Afghani people. Unless we change the approach to developing a sustainable economy in Afghanistan, our mission will not succeed."

While Kennedy conceded "some big things slipped through the cracks" under the federal Liberals, who first sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan in December 2001, he said the aim always was to have serious debate on the duration of the mission.

"Harper stole from Canadians the terms under which Canadian men and women are being put in harm's way," Kennedy said.

Environment

Kennedy is pledging that Canada will be a clean energy superpower by 2020 under his proposed energy and environment plan.

"We have the know-how and means to be the cleanest country on the planet but in order for Canada to emerge as a clean energy superpower, we must adopt policies that bring industry, consumers and government together, said Kennedy.

Strategies outlined in Kennedy's plan include:

• A GST exemption of up to $5000, for hybrid, hydrogen and fuel cell and ultra clean bio-diesel vehicles;
• A progressive gas-guzzler tax on all vehicles that have worse than average fuel consumption;
• 50 per cent of government fleet purchases to be hybrids or alternative fuelled vehicles by 2010 and 100 per cent by 2015;
• One per cent improvement in energy consumption per capita in five years and three per cent over the next 10 years;
• Drive innovation by using the tax code to encourage investment in environmental technologies;
• Provide incentives for ground-source heat pumps;
• Create programs and greater incentives for conservation including home retrofit programs and pilot programs to monitor energy consumption and energy cost by the minute;
• Introduce a mandatory market-based system that allows companies to register and trade emission credits.

The plan also calls for the decentralization of the decision-making process in order to seek the input of those who are most actively involved in energy production and environmental protection.

"We must adopt energy and environment policies that reflect the challenges our producers face from the oil fields off Newfoundland's coast to the oil sands in Alberta," said Kennedy. "We must also actively consider strategies to engage First Nations and other Aboriginal peoples to take full advantage of the economic opportunities that Canada as a clean energy super power will bring."

Health Care

Gerard Kennedy appears on Mike Duffy Live.

Although Kennedy has not published a sweeping platform on health care, he has made comments that make his position clear on controversial issues.

Kennedy has called on the Harper government to continue federal funding of a safe injection site in Vancouver, saying it was a program that saved lives and protects the weakest strata of our society.

"Insite saves lives and is a Canadian social and medical success story," Kennedy said in a statement.

"Of the 336 users who overdosed, the experienced professionals at the site performed life saving interventions and helped provide thousands of users with harm reduction strategies to reduce crime and prevent the spread of disease."

Kennedy also called on Harper to attend the 2006 AIDS conference when the prime minister cited a scheduling conflict, saying he should do the right thing.

"The eyes of the world will be on Canada and it will be a national embarrassment that the head of state of the host country refused to attend," he said.

"Tackling this disease internationally requires the firm resolve of all nations, and Canada has played a significant and pioneering role in the fight to date."

When Kennedy resigned as a Toronto MPP, he reminded constituents of his accomplishments on the health-care front.

He said that highlights during his tenure included significant funding for St. Joseph's Health Care Centre, which resulted in reduced wait times for cancer treatment, hip replacements and cataract surgery.

He also said that while in opposition, he worked with members of the community to stop health care and education cutbacks.

Economy

Kennedy has proposed an ambitious plan to erase the wage gap between men and women.

The plan includes dramatically boosting day care spaces, eliminating inequities in the tax system and collaborating with business and labour to make the work force more equitable and hospitable for women.

To close that gap, Kennedy proposes to devote 0.7 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product to day care and early childhood education programs, up from the current 0.3 per cent. The increase would be phased in over the next five years.

He also plans to introduce a series of reforms to make the tax system more family-friendly and to remedy the current situation in which single-earners get more generous tax breaks than dual-earner families.

National Unity

Kennedy's campaign office has not returned calls from CTV.ca inquiring on Kennedy's position on national unity at the time this summary was posted.