Canada is not in U.S. trouble, Harper tells debate
03 Oct 2008 04:00:23 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds Harper remark on stock market, paragraph 13) By Randall Palmer OTTAWA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper admitted on Thursday to concern about global economic trouble but said in Canada's final election debate that his country was on a far better economic footing than the United States. "I think there are some areas that we can do better but we are not in the kind of economic crisis we have in the U.S.," said the Conservative leader, seeking to deflect ferocious attacks from four other party leaders. The debate was the last big chance his opponents have to try to achieve a breakthrough ahead of the Oct. 14 Canadian federal election and cut into the strong polling lead Harper has enjoyed since the campaign began on Sept. 7. Thursday's English debate followed a French-language debate on Wednesday night, but this time it had to compete for Canadian viewers with the U.S. vice presidential debate at exactly the same time between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. "Hang on, guys, guys," moderator Steve Paikin said during a noisy exchange when leaders were talking over each other. "I'm trying to make sure that Biden and Palin don't take our audience." Because of his front-runner status, Harper drew most of the attacks -- New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton called him "cold-hearted" and Green leader Elizabeth May said his environmental program was a fraud. His main opponent, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, angrily accused him of distorting the Liberal proposal for a new carbon tax accompanied by income tax cuts and subsidies. "Don't believe this man. We don't need this kind of leaders any more," said Dion, sometimes struggling in English, not his native language. 'ECONOMY ON COURSE' The first and longest segment of the debate centered on the economy, and Harper renewed his pitch for a steady hand, avoiding new taxes and keeping the budget in surplus. "We should recognize the strength of our economy," said Harper, elected to a minority government in January 2006. "Overall, we're being successful. We're keeping the economy on course and we're not going into a recession." In contrast with Washington, Ottawa had appropriate financial and mortgage regulation, he said. "The economic and financial policies of the U.S. have been disastrous." Pointing to weakness in oil and financial stocks, Harper said to impose taxes on them would just hurt pensioners and other investors. "We've seen again today, we know we have more trouble in the stock market," he told reporters afterward. "I don't understand parties whose central policy would be to say they want to protect the savings of pensioners and pension funds, and yet their policies would hit precisely the stocks that we're seeing falling in the stock market." The Conservatives are 9 to 15 percentage points ahead of the Liberals and even further ahead of the leftist New Democrats. Unless the race is shaken up Harper will be re-elected. Besides the question of whether he will win a majority of seats in Parliament, a key remaining question will be who will be the opposition leader. New Democratic leader Layton -- reserving sharp barbs for Dion, who remains several points ahead of him -- attacked Dion for having refused to topple Harper's government over the past year. "If you can't do your job as leader of the opposition, I don't know what you're doing running for prime minister," Layton told him. Back to the question of that "other" debate, south of the border, moderator Paikin concluded: "This was way better than Biden and Palin. I'm sure of it." (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
