OTTAWA – Any Canadian citizen who has lived outside the country can legitimately run for the country's top job, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged today.

Pressed repeatedly on whether the negative Conservative Party ads slamming Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff for his time out of the country represent his own view, Harper dodged a direct answer four times during a Halifax television interview.

Harper defended the campaign's claim that Ignatieff is "Just Visiting," saying the source for the ad material is "strictly Mr. Ignatieff's own words and own record so he's the one who has to answer questions on that."

CTV host Steve Murphy asked Harper a fifth time about his personal view. "Do you think that he is in any sense disqualified from aspiring to be prime minister because he's been out of the country?"

Harper stammered, and reluctantly disavowed the main thrust behind his party's ad campaign, which just concluded a broadcast run across the country.

"Every, every, every, obviously every Canadian citizen's eligible to run for office," Harper said. "But obviously our records, motives, statements, all these things will be under scrutiny, they always are, of all party leaders in an election campaign."

Asked if he thought the ads "were working," the Conservative leader said, "that's really for party officials who worry about that," but suggested the ads had had at least one desired effect.

"To the extent that I think the ads have made the Liberal party think twice about having an election, I think that's been a good result. Because I don't think Canadians want an election. I think it would be another round of political instability. And so to the extent that it's put that party a little bit back on its heels and maybe thinking a little bit more about how to cooperate and actually dealing with the economy, I actually think it's been helpful."

The Conservative party ads attack Ignatieff for "Just Visiting" after spending more than 30 years outside the country as a professor, journalist and author. The overt message is Ignatieff is running for his own interests, not those of the country.

The Harper interview was conducted by the same Halifax television host who last fall broadcast a mid-campaign interview with then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. Dion stumbled over an awkwardly-phrased question about how the economy should be handled. The network's decision to air that interview was recently criticized as unfair by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

Harper held forth on a number of other subjects during Murphy's interview.

Asked about the recent N.S. election that saw voters elect an NDP majority government, Harper predicted he would get along well with the new premier.

"The book I've been given on Darrel Dexter is he's a sensible guy who's focused on the issues that matter including the economy."

He said the federal Conservatives did not take any particular message from the Nova Scotia vote results. "My read of the election is it was strictly on provincial issues, it really wasn't an election about the federal government."

"I don't really care what the stripe of a provincial government is." He added, "We have an obligation to work in the shared interests of the citizens of this province...I think the new government of Nova Scotia will be committed to the best interests of the country."

Harper would not comment on whether he would appoint outgoing premier and fellow Conservative Rodney Macdonald to any federal job.

And he defended the decision to strike a Conservative-Liberal panel to study EI reform, and what his government has done so far for the unemployed hit by the current recession.

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"The vast majority of people who are losing their jobs are getting unemployment insurance, they're getting it promptly, and they're getting more of it than ever before."

"I'm not saying things are perfect, but the system is responding. We are going to spend $5.5 billion more on employment insurance this year than last year."

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