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Brison said the Liberals have already publicly outlined some of the pillars of their policies – from infrastructure investments to improving access to post-secondary education – and the details will come later.

“Of course, Harper would love us to lay out in granular details our platform today so he can twist it, define it for what it isn’t, malign it, and demonize and stigmatize and marginalize. He’d spend millions on negative ads. That would be just stupid.”

The governing Conservatives say that Canada’s economic track record has been impressive under their leadership and the country is in better shape than many other G20 nations. The Liberals counter by saying there is deep economic anxiety in the middle class, as many Canadians worry about job stability, wages, and their children’s economy futures.

“Today’s parents and grandparents are the first generation of Canadians to believe that their kids will be worse off than them,” said Brison.

“In the next election, there will be a contrast between a government hell-bent on creating a notional surplus on the eve of an election for political reasons, versus an alternative that offers a growth-focused set of policies to create real opportunity for middle-class Canadian families.”

Earlier this summer, Harper delivered a speech to supporters in Calgary during which he lambasted Trudeau.

He said Trudeau would reverse all of the Tories’ gains on deficit control, justice policies and foreign policy.

Harper said Trudeau’s boosters will urge voters in the next campaign to “just close your eyes and dream and don’t ask any hard questions.”

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc brushed aside that criticism. “I’ve noticed that the NDP 2015 election platform isn’t on their website either. Mr. Harper has run out of new ideas, so he’s probably scrambling around to try and find something that he can pretend is new for his own platform.”

mkennedy@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/Mark_Kennedy_