CP A composite image of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer (left), former prime minister Stephen Harper (centre), and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

OTTAWA — In a rallying call to Liberal donors Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau painted the next election as a choice between moving forward with the Grits’ progressive agenda or sliding backwards with Conservative cuts and Stephen Harper-era politics. Advertisement In a seven-minute speech to his supporters, many of whom have contributed at least $1,500 a year to the party, Trudeau listed as his government’s accomplishments: negotiating a new NAFTA, lifting 300,000 children out of poverty, taking steps to fight climate change, and banning single use plastics as early as 2021. Canada has the lowest unemployment rate in 40 years, Trudeau told the crowd of a few hundred people. More than a million jobs have been created since the Liberals took office, he boasted. “Our plan is working, so let’s keep going, and let’s dream even bigger.” Advertisement Earlier: Trudeau blasts Scheer in N.S. stump speech

Come October, Canadians will be asked to make an important decision, the Liberal leader said. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is advocating austerity and cuts, Trudeau said. “Like Harper, he doesn’t think that we need to act to combat climate change. In fact, last week we learned that Andrew Scheer doesn’t take any important decisions without consulting Stephen Harper,” the prime minister said. In an article published this month in L’Actualité, journalist Alec Castonguay wrote that Scheer “rarely takes an important decision without consulting his former leader [Harper], as well as his former colleague Jason Kenney, now the premier of Alberta.” “Andrew Scheer may be Stephen Harper with a smile, so, exactly as advertised,” Trudeau said, to laughter from his audience. “But he’s taking pages straight out of Doug Ford’s playbook. Advertisement “So Doug Ford cut public services for children, and Andrew Scheer promised parents money to send their kids to private schools.”

When Scheer ran for the Conservative leadership in 2017, he pledged to provide a tax deduction for independent school tuition worth up to $4,000 per child per school year, and a $1,000 tax credit for homeschooling. That policy is no longer advertised on the Conservative Party of Canada website. Liberal volunteer Martin Partridge said he hears an earful about Ford when he’s knocking on doors in the Ontario riding of Peterborough–Kawartha. Advertisement “More than 50 per cent of the doors are volunteering their feelings about Doug Ford, and it ain’t good,” he told HuffPost Canada. Partridge, a retired lawyer, said everyone in the riding “knows somebody who has been affected” by Ford’s cuts. He bemoans the $130 million cut to Legal Aid Ontario, describing it as “profoundly disastrous” and one that will prevent the most vulnerable in society from getting access to justice. “It’s totally contrary to what people expected,” he said. “They thought it was going to be a line by line, four per cent [cut] … but they are hurting the programs directly, public health, education, etc., and people are screaming about it.” Also on HuffPost:

Liberal MPs Who Aren't Running In 2019 Rodger Cuzner Adrian Wyld/CP Riding: Cape Breton-Canso (Nova Scotia)First elected: 2000 Mark Eyking Sean Kilpatrick/CP Riding: Sydney-Victoria (Nova Scotia)First elected: 2000 Bill Casey Andrew Vaughan/CP Riding: Cumberland-Colchester (Nova Scotia)Elected: 2015NOTE: Casey was first elected in 1988 as a Progressive Conservative. He was defeated in 1993 but returned to the House of Commons in 1997. He was expelled from the Conservative caucus in 2007 after voting against the Tory budget and served as an Independent until 2009. Borys Wrzesnewskyj Adrian Wyld/CP Riding: Etobicoke Centre (Ontario)Elected: 2015NOTE: Wrzesnewskyj also served as the riding's MP from 2004-2011. Colin Fraser Facebook/Colin Fraser Riding: West Nova (Nova Scotia)First elected: 2015 TJ Harvey Facebook/TJ Harvey Riding: Tobique-Mactaquac (New Brunswick)First elected: 2015 John Oliver Facebook/John Oliver Riding: Oakville (Ontario)First elected: 2015 Kyle Peterson Facebook/Kyle Peterson Riding: Newmarket—Aurora (Ontario)First elected: 2015 Don Rusnak Facebook/Don Rusnak Riding: Thunder Bay-Rainy River (Ontario)First elected: 2015 Andrew Leslie Riding: Orléans (Ontario)First elected: 2015