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By Quentin Casey, CanadaEast News Service

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Speak Up

Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a campaign-style speech at a Fredericton Conservative rally Thursday, blasting the Liberals' proposed carbon tax and their role in a "dysfunctional" Parliament.

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PHOTO BY DAVID SMITH, TELEGRAPH JOURNAL

Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses the Conservative Atlantic Caucus in Fredericton on Thursday, Aug. 14. At left is Mike Allen, MP for Tobique Mactaquac. Harper took aim at the Liberal party's carbon tax policy, suggesting the so-called Green Shift proposal is a 'green shaft' and will stifle the Canadian economy.

The prime minister, in town for a meeting of the Conservative party's Atlantic caucus, called the Liberal carbon tax "a bad policy" for Atlantic Canada – one that would hurt both families and industry in the region.

"We are going to make sure that Atlantic Canadians are not tricked into voting for a tax increase," he said.

According to Harper, the Liberals' so-called Green Shift platform is not an environmental policy because it lacks targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's just a tax increase masquerading as environmental policy," he said. "It's a tax shift, alright. It will shift tax dollars out of your pocket and into the federal government's."

Harper claimed the policy would drive up "the price of everything," from transportation to groceries to electricity and "even propane for our barbecues."

"The ‘green shift' is a ‘green shaft,' and we must never let it happen to our country," he said.

Harper received a steady round of applause from the crowd of 400 when he joked the Liberal plan was originally called "Shift Happens."

As he did earlier in the day at a stop in Newfoundland, Harper blasted Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his repeated threats to topple the government.

He said the situation reminded him of the movie Groundhog Day, in which actor Bill Murray plays a weatherman who finds himself living the same day over and over.

Harper also described the current situation in Parliament as "dysfunctional," and further fuelled speculation that Canadians could head to the polls shortly.

"Let this government govern or let the people decide," he said. "Dion should decide for good and he should decide soon."

Harper's bullish election rhetoric appears to be supported by a new Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll. It suggests Canadians prefer Conservatives over Liberals when it comes to leadership and most major issues – even though that preference has not translated into popular support for the governing party. The survey suggests 43 per cent of Canadians think the Tories have the best leader to be prime minister.

Only 22 per cent of those polled picked the Liberals.

Earlier in the day, after a funding announcement in eastern Newfoundland, Harper openly mused about the possibility of engineering the defeat of his own government and triggering an election.

If that should happen before the next scheduled federal election in October 2009, Harper will be looking to improve on his three Conservative seats in New Brunswick.

New Maryland Tory MLA Keith Ashfield appeared itching to hit the campaign trail. He had joined a number of federal candidates gearing up for an election at a closed session of Tory MPs and candidates earlier Thursday in Mactaquac.

Ashfield, who hopes to be elected federally in Fredericton, said the idea of a carbon tax is not popular in the province. He pointed to recent public hearings, which examined the tax reforms proposed by the province's Liberal government. Many of those sessions were dominated by criticism of the suggested carbon tax.

"Everything that we consume will be affected," said Ashfield, who introduced Harper to the crowd.

"It will increase the price of home heating oil and it will increase the price of the food we eat because of the transportation required to move product into the province."

The Liberals say Harper is misrepresenting their key policy, stressing that the carbon tax will be largely offset by income- and business-tax breaks, which the Conservatives fail to mention.

The complicated climate-change plan would also offer tax benefits to the poor, elderly and rural dwellers.

Harper's speech also focused on highlights from the Conservatives' time in power – now the longest-serving minority government in Canadian history.

He noted the two-point reduction of the GST, money for the Saint John Harbour cleanup and a reduction of more than $37 billion from the national debt.

"Who would have guessed it?" he said. "That after nearly two-and-a-half years we are still in office."

With files from the Canadian Press.