Party leaders comment on a shaky economy

On the anniversary of Jack Layton’s death, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair promised to run a positive campaign despite attacks from his rivals that he called a sign of desperation.

The federal leaders engaged in some heavy crossfire Tuesday with clashing visions of how to balance the country’s books and grow the economy taking shape on the campaign trial.

“If I earn the right to serve this country as your prime minister, no veteran will be forced to fight their own government for the support and compensation that they have earned”, the Liberal leader said to applause from about 300 people at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.

The Conservative leader has been battling to deliver that message in the face of revelations from the Mike Duffy fraud trail that have linked members of his office to a controversial $90,000 payout to Duffy.

Mulcair took his shots at Harper’s economic management in the new riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.

Harper said Monday the unstable global economy is the most important issue facing Canadians and urged them to stay with his party.

He added he would work with the provinces and territories and that his plan would not be “one size fits all”.

“This would be the worst time to suddenly fly off on a completely different plan, one based on extraordinarily high levels of spending, to be financed by increased taxes and permanent deficits”.

“Giving tens of billions of dollars in tax reductions to Canada’s richest corporations didn’t create jobs”.

Recent polls suggest the Conservatives are neck-and-neck with the left-leaning New Democrats and the centrist Liberals, and could well lose its majority in the House of Commons.

Mulcair said an NDP government would invest in infrastructure, transit and housing.

Harper said that, “during the ’90s, when the world economy had a better performance than now, the Liberals lost control of the deficit”, and balanced the budget by raising income taxes and cutting provincial transfers.

In his statement, Lebel not only accused Mulcair of being “in the same bed as the union leaders he once denounced”, but also of changing his tune on recently unearthed positive comments Mulcair once made about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Trudeau was circumspect on how he would pay for the promise, noting that the Liberals would release a fully costed platform soon.

“The kind of experience Canadians have gone through over the past 10 years under Mr. Harper is not an experience they want to continue”, said Trudeau.

“Right now, with the instability on global markets, there are an bad lot of Canadians anxious about their retirements, looking with anxiety at the coming years”, Trudeau said.