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This article was published 26/11/2010 (4573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Forget crime and health care.

On Thursday, candidates in the Winnipeg North byelection were instead warring over who longtime Liberal heavyweight and University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy loves best.

Liberal candidate Kevin Lamoureux is furious about a flyer implying Axworthy — a former senior federal Liberal cabinet minister — had endorsed the NDP’s Kevin Chief.

The brochure in question has a photo of Chief and Axworthy prominently displayed along with smaller photos of others who have endorsed Chief. There is also a quote printed on the photo from Axworthy praising Chief.

Chief, who has worked with Axworthy for the last four years as the co-ordinator of the U of W Innovative Learning Centre, said Thursday he never claimed Axworthy had endorsed him. Neither is Axworthy among those listed as Chief’s endorsers on his website.

“Lloyd is somebody I admire,” said Chief. “I have an enormous amount of respect for him. I appreciate his support but I have never publicly used the word ‘endorsed.”

But Lamoureux said Chief clearly is trying to claim he received an endorsement from a top Liberal.

“For him to try to give that impression is just wrong,” said Lamoureux.

Axworthy said he hasn’t endorsed anybody in the campaign and doesn’t think it’s appropriate to do so as the president of a university.

“I haven’t endorsed anybody in the last six years (since I became president) and I don’t intend to change that,” he told the Free Press Thursday.

He said he supports people privately through donations he makes.

A Chief campaign spokesman said he had been given permission by Axworthy to report Axworthy had made a “significant” donation of more than $100 to the Chief campaign.

Axworthy noted Chief had approached him for permission to use a photo of the two of them from their time working together on the U of W’s Innovative Learning Centre.

Axworthy said it was a public event and a media photo and he could not stop him.

But the photo that appeared was not that photo so Axworthy asked Chief to stop using the brochure and he complied.

However, Axworthy said it is unfair of anyone to suggest he has no connection to Chief or that he does not in fact admire him.

“He’s got a very nice touch with people,” he said.

Axworthy said he also has a lot of respect for Lamoureux as a politician and credited him with helping the university work with the city’s Filipino community.

But Axworthy also said, “to make the record more balanced” Lamoureux used a photo of him from the Filipino pavilion during Folklorama in one of his brochures without ever calling to ask for permission.

Lamoureux’s campaign spokeswoman said to the best of her knowledge, Lamoureux has not used any photos of Axworthy in his campaign literature.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca