Wynne slams Harper at Blair campaign event in Scarborough

Duguid comments are in the context of a federal election campaign and an ongoing war of words between Harper and Premier Kathleen Wynne, still fuming over the fact that Harper refused to let the federal government administer the Liberals’ proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

What was perhaps Stephen Harper’s most heated exchange this week didn’t involve one of the other party leaders but rather the Premier of Ontario. “And that will make it very hard if indeed the Conservative government is reelected in Ottawa to pursue the kinds of policies and the cooperation that she would say that she would want to pursue”.

“If we had Stephen Harper as the prime minister when Canada needed a national railroad or a health care system or the CPP or the (St. Lawrence) Seaway, where would we be as a nation?”

“This is not personal”, said Wynne.

“He would have said ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to help you with that, build it yourself, ‘” she said.

Wynne had previously blasted Harper for the federal government’s lack of support for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and has vowed to keep fighting against him, though has said she will try again to work with him if he is re-elected on October 19.

Duguid’s comments followed Ontario’s weak performance on job growth for July, blaming in part the federal Conservative government’s refusal to devote more money to infrastructure, especially now when Canada is teetering on a recession.

But Wynne called Harper’s characterization of the ORPP as a tax as “silly”.

Ontario passed legislation in April to create a provincial pension plan for more than three million people who do not have a workplace pension plan.

Martin Rust, a senior advisor with StrategyCorp, said Wynne’s remarks during the election campaign have been surprising.

Another political leader has joined the federal campaign and she’s making no apologies for butting in.

“I think we should be clear, she’s in this and approaching this the way she is for her own reasons and her own agenda”, he said.