NDP leader Jack Layton hammered Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the harmonized sales tax on Sunday, arguing during a campaign stop in Surrey that it was a bad move during a recession.
“[The HST] has a depressing, in the economic sense of the word, effect on the economy,” Layton said Sunday. “It is precisely the wrong time to impose a new tax on consumption. That’s why it’s a bad economic policy.”
Layton said he believes voters don’t trust Harper after he pushed the HST in B.C., adding that the tax brought an “uprising of New Democrat sentiment the likes of which we’ve never seen.”
Surrey is considered one of the NDP’s battlegrounds in this election because it includes three swing ridings: Surrey North, Newton-North Delta and Fleetwood-Port Kells.
Layton also accused Harper of expressing “false outrage” over the possibility of a future coalition government. He stopped short of calling the prime minister a liar, but said it’s hard for Canadians to trust Harper because he tried to do the same thing in 2004 during former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin’s minority government.
At that time, Harper met with Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and the trio wrote a letter asking then-governor-general Adrienne Clarkson to consider all options other than an election if the government should fall.
In spite of his actions in 2004, Harper has said on the campaign trail that it is illegitimate for an opposition leader to try to form a government without first going to voters in an election.
After pumping up supporters at the Surrey Guildford Sheraton, Layton spent the afternoon in the riding of Surrey-North, where NDP candidate Jasbir Sandhu hopes to win the seat back from Conservative Dona Cadman, widow of the late MP Chuck Cadman.
Sandhu said his Conservative opponent has kept too low a profile in the community and believes he can woo voters back to the NDP. After Chuck Cadman died, the riding was held by New Democrat MP Penny Priddy until she resigned in 2008.
Arriving at a strip mall, Layton welcomed the crowd with a message in Punjabi. He spoke to business owners in the heavily Sikh-populated riding, promising to work for small family-run businesses hurt by the HST, like the small hardware store run by Nick and Raj Thind.
Another couple, Jaspreet and Simran Singh Kandhawa, who operate a family-owned greengrocers said they were upset about the high cost of food and concerned about a decline in business because of the HST.
“We’re here to support you and hard-working families,” said Layton, as he bought a bag of oranges to give to people on his campaign bus.
Layton reiterated his party message that only New Democrats can stop the Conservatives and make life more affordable for families.
“Instead of listening to families in B.C., [the Conservatives] blindly followed Stephen Harper in Ottawa,” said Layton. “New Democrats will put forward practical solutions to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, take the federal tax off home heating and take the pressure off your household budget.”
Layton also pledged to make child care affordable and ensure foreign credentials are recognized in Canada.
He said an NDP government would apologize in the House of Commons for the Komagata Maru incident, which he said the Harper government has failed to do.
The Komagata Maru was a Japanese steamship that sailed from Hong Kong to British Columbia in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India. But they were not allowed to land in Canada, and the ship was forced to return to India. The passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus. The incident is a reminder of Canada’s exclusion laws designed to keep out immigrants from Asia.
“What’s the point of flashing images of the Komagata Maru in ads when that party refuses to apologize for the injustice to the community in the House of Commons? For the past four years the Conservatives have done nothing to address this tragedy,” Layton earlier told supporters at the Sheraton.
Canadians will go to the polls May 2 after Tories lost a confidence vote in Parliament Friday.
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