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Thomas Mulcair has been criticized by both Conservatives and Liberals after the NDP leader suggested that the Tory government’s policies contributed to the deadly train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

On Saturday, before the full extent of the tragedy became disturbingly clear, Mulcair told CTV News that the accident was “another case where government is cutting in the wrong area.

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“This tragic accident reminds us we are going through a fundamental change in some of the transportation areas of the country, we are seeing more and more petroleum products being transported by rail, and there are attendant dangers involved in that,” he said. “And at the same time, the Conservative government is cutting transport safety in Canada, cutting back the budgets in that area.”

Mulcair’s comments were slammed by both former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae and Stephen Harper’s spokesperson as political opportunism.