Stephen Harper’s drive for an elusive majority hits Toronto Sunday as he tries to convince voters to swing Conservative to keep an opposition coalition at bay.

“Canadians in all regions ... need to be part of a stable national government focused on the economy, passing our budget measures and not raising taxes,” Harper said Saturday afternoon in Quebec City.

Harper launched his election campaign Saturday touting his party’s economic credentials and playing up fears of a coalition, which he hopes will send votes his way.

The Conservative leader kicks off the second day of the campaign in Canada’s biggest city, an acknowledgement of how important this region is to his desire to win a strong mandate in the May 2 vote.

“Let me be perfectly clear: unless Canadians elect a stable national majority government, (Liberal Leader) Michael Ignatieff will form a coalition with the NDP and Bloc Québécois,” he said.

“Imagine a coalition of arch-centralists and Quebec sovereignists trying to work together. The only thing they’ll be able to agree on is to spend more money and to raise taxes to pay for it,” Harper said.

Harper’s minority Conservatives were defeated in a historic non-confidence vote Friday that cited the government for contempt of Parliament. Despite that unprecedented finding, Harper dismissed the parliamentary finding that drove him from power as mere “political manoeuvring.”

“That is not the substance of this election or what the Canadian public care about,” he said.

He tried instead to stoke voters’ fears that the election could upset Canada’s economic recovery, given the instability already brewing around the world — uprisings in the Middle East and Japan’s natural disasters.

“It’s incredible,” Harper said.

“At the moment when the whole world searches for stability, the opposition searches to create political instability here,” said Harper, who has scheduled a Sunday morning rally in preparation for a Sunday morning rally at the Pearson Convention Centre.

Harper’s Conservatives made critical gains in the 905 region in the 2008 election. Last fall they took Vaughan in a by-election. Now they hope their focus on the Toronto area (including higher profiles for local MPs in January’s cabinet shuffle) will pay dividends.

Conservatives are feeling especially bullish about their prospects in Toronto after last fall’s election of Mayor Rob Ford with his conservative agenda of keeping a lid on taxes.

“It’s very clear that’s an area where there is great promise because we did so well in the last election,” Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton said.

She said many GTA voters are attracted to the Conservatives and their focus on middle-class priorities of “jobs and the economy.” And she said the government’s messages are finding a receptive audience among new Canadians, which comprise a sizeable part of the region’s makeup.

“It’s very clear there are a lot of voters in Toronto and in the Greater Toronto Area that are attracted to the Conservative party,” she told the Star.

Harper was about a dozen seats short of a majority in the last election.

His first week on this campaign promises to be a cross-country trek to major media centres to hit the spotlight and the ridings where he hopes to make gains.

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After launching his campaign on the front steps of Rideau Hall Saturday, he flew to Quebec City for a rally with area candidates. The Conservatives hold 11 seats in the province, including seven in the Quebec City region.

Speaking Saturday afternoon at his first campaign event of the election, Harper had a crowd of about 250 supporters here cheering as he pledged to keep a lid on taxes and touted tax breaks such as a home retrofit credit.

In a bid to boost electoral hopes in Quebec, Harper announced the Conservatives will launch their own bus tour of the province, led by party veteran Christian Paradis, to tour the regions and showcase candidates.

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