Candidates descend on mall Sun, November 5, 2006 New Democrat Megan Walker and Liberal Glen Pearson both made stops at Cherryhill yesterday. By JENNIFER O'BRIEN, FREE PRESS REPORTER

The byelection battle for London-North-Centre heated up yesterday, as New Democrat Megan Walker brought in the party's top gun to back her up.

But by the time NDP Leader Jack Layton and party candidate Walker arrived at Cherryhill Village Mall, Walker's Liberal rival, Glen Pearson, had already arrived with his own big shooter, London-West MP Sue Barnes.

Meanwhile, Conservative candidate Dianne Haskett was pounding the pavement with Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale MP Dave Sweet to round up votes for the Nov. 27 byelection.

And Oxford MP Dave McKenzie, a former Woodstock police chief, was in London to promote the Tory's anti-crime policies.

Pearson, a London firefighter involved with the London Food Bank, said he had positive response from mall-goers.

"Two thirds of these people have donated to the food bank," he said, after shaking hands with one shopper. "We are hearing good things."

But it was Walker's day at the mall food court, where NDP-orange-buttoned seniors gathered with Walker and Layton.

"Isn't it nice to meet him?" a smiling 81-year-old Rose Askin asked a friend, after posing for a picture with the NDP leader.

"I've been a member of the NDP since it originated," she said later. "I was a member of the CCF from the time I was nine years old," she said, referring to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the NDP forerunner.

As for Walker?

"I love her. She's got to be the winner," Askin said, pointing to an NDP badge so old Layton didn't even recognize it.

Later, at a news conference at Gibbons Park, along the Thames River, where Walker said she swam as a child, Layton and Walker touted the NDP line on the environment.

"This was my park," she said, laughing as she referred to her childhood growing up on The Parkway. "I owned this park."

Pearson said he was surprised to hear Layton would be at Cherryhill.

"We had arranged this a long time ago," he said. "We didn't know they would be here today."

In other byelection news, Progressive Canadian Party candidate Steve Hunter plans to announce the party's education policy tomorrow.

The policy includes a student assistance loan program to cover tuition, books and living expenses.

The loan would be forgiven if the student graduates and stays in Canada, according to a news release for his campaign.

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