

Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





Conservative leader Stephen Harper roundly dismissed the notion Tuesday that anyone is voting strategically in this election to keep him from power.

In a live one-on-one interview with CP24’s Stephen LeDrew on Tuesday afternoon, the leader of the Conservative Party responded to the “Anyone but Harper” movement, saying it holds no sway in any voter’s final decision on the ballot.

“Nobody votes strategically, you and I both know that. People vote for what they think is best for them.”

He went on to tout his party’s promises to make a home renovation tax credit permanent, lower EI premiums and a doubling of grants towards registered education savings plans.

Harper said that many of his promises during this campaign have smaller dollar figures attached to them than the ones made by opponents Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair, but that only makes them more feasible to implement, and also, more credible.

“The other guys are going to promise you a whole lot more, but the fact of the matter is you don’t know how they’ll pay for it and you don’t know if they’ll even do it,” he said.

With six days to go before Election Day, Harper is visiting Toronto and southern Ontario ridings on Tuesday, where recent polls suggest some of his party’s incumbent candidates are in danger of losing.

Recent polls have also placed Harper behind Justin Trudeau’s Liberals however, Harper shrugged off any suggestion that modern polls are indicative of true public opinion.

“You’re never going to get me to comment on the polls, not only because they’re all over the map, but they’re also unreliable in the modern era with the internet and cell phones,” he added.

Asked about the heightened visibility of his family on the campaign trail, Harper joke he was surprised but also skeptical when daughter Rachel, 16, and son Ben, 19, told him they were going to join him on the bus.

“Both my son and daughter said ‘we’re taking next week off school, we’ve got permission, we’re going to do our homework on the road because we want to be there on the road with you’,” Harper said. “Having the family around is the greatest thing, but on the other hand, dad’s a bit skeptical. I hope you really are doing that school work and I hope that’s all going to come to pass.”

“(Because of their ages) You don’t really get to spend this kind of time with the family under normal circumstances so I’m glad under these circumstances we can do that,” he added.