WELLAND—The battle for the votes of middle-class working Canadians is stepping up.

Swinging through Ontario, Conservative party Leader Stephen Harper was called to account by the head of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce who pressed him repeatedly on lagging infrastructure and manufacturing help for Canada’s largest province.

President Allan O’Dette questioned Harper in Welland pointing out that years ago manufacturing would have been a major employer here, adding that the troubled sector needs a “more targeted approach.” He asked Harper about measures to help manufacturers be “more successful” in the face of a lot of global competition.

Harper defended his record, and said he’s worked “hand in glove” with the big Canadian manufacturers and exporters.

“A country has to make things, and it has to make them well,” said Harper, who has focused much of his economic strategy over the past ten years on boosting the energy, oil and gas sector. He pointed to Conservative cuts in corporate taxes, write-offs for investments in machinery and equipment, incentives to develop high-skilled high-tech manufacturing jobs, and his efforts to promote free trade agreements.

“We’re doing a whole bunch of things across the board to make this a good place to invest from which to do business on a global platform . . . we have been doing things that the manufacturing sector has asked for.”

Harper declined to discuss “specifics” about the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks now underway, and what tariffs are likely to be dropped resulting in exposure for vulnerable Canadian sectors, saying there’s no deal until there’s a deal.

Challenged to allocate infrastructure funds in the Building Canada fund on a per-capita basis, a change in the formula that would send more money to Ontario than is now the case, Harper said he expected that ultimately he expects the money that will come to Ontario through transit funds for big cities and infrastructure money for smaller cities will amount to a per capita distribution of funds. “If you looked at the infrastructure spending we’ve done to date . . . I don’t think we’re far off of that.”

O’Dette also asked Harper about his cool approach to the northern mining play known as the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario, where infrastructure is minimal, and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has demanded greater federal help.

O’Dette countered to Harper that more infrastructure development would also help to develop other clean energy resources in the north. Harper pointed only to his campaign promise to enhance the northern mining exploration tax credit.

But Harper took full credit for Canada’s relatively healthy debt-to-GDP ratio.

Harper said Canada’s debt burden has barely risen at all despite the economic downturn of the past several years, and Harper credited it to the fact Canada had a balanced budget before 2008, and to his government’s moves to rein in spending and to “lock in low interest rates over time.”

He launched into another attack on the NDP and Liberals for promising deficit spending “even during a period when the economy is growing.”

Statistics Canada reported Canada had two consecutive quarterly periods of shrinking economic growth, the definition of a recession, but there was an uptick in economic output in June. It is that hopeful sign that Harper has seized on.

When pushed to encourage a government procurement strategy that would open up work for smaller manufacturers, Harper emphasized all businesses need an innovative approach to developing their markets.

“I’ve worked in large business and I’ve worked in small business.” Harper said, and suggested smart businesses of all sizes figure out ways to innovate. Harper worked at Imperial Oil in his early adult life, and apart from a stint at the right-wing advocacy group the National Citizens Coalition, he spent most of his career in politics as a Reform policy advisor and MP, later leader of the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party. He often refers to his wife Laureen’s experience in running a graphic design business.

Harper defended his government’s approach to encourage more skilled trades workers, and though he agreed with O’Dette’s suggestion “we do need better data” and information for young people about where the jobs are, he insisted said not everyone will get a job coming out of university, and more should be urged to pursue skilled trades.

O’Dette was not an unsympathetic questioner, however, asking Harper a softball question about other political leaders who promise higher corporate taxes and “continue to pile on” the burden now on businesses.

“What can you do to lower overall the burden on business in Ontario?” he asked.

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Harper knocked the Ontario government, and his NDP and Liberal rivals, saying if elected either party would be an “absolute disaster for this country.

Harper punched at their support for Wynne’s pension plan.

And he hit back at the Liberal Party’s promise to enhance EI benefits, saying Conservatives would drop EI premiums faster and steeper.

Harper reminded voters that he had already planned a cut first announced in the last federal budget that aims to lower by 21 per cent what he called “payroll taxes” — the money that businesses and employees contribute to the Employment Insurance program. That is money that belongs to workers not to the Liberals to expand the employment insurance system, said Harper.

“This is not what people were promised,” said Harper.

The Conservatives had frozen EI premiums during the recession, and last year introduced a further 15 per cent cut in premium rates for small businesses under a two-year small business tax credit program.

The Conservatives’ promised reduction would apply more broadly to “every business in Canada and every working Canadian who pays into Employment Insurance,” said Harper. It would see premiums drop from $1.88 per $100 earned to an estimated $1.49 per $100 earned in 2017.The day before, Trudeau promised to overhaul employment insurance to reverse controversial Conservative changes in order to make it easier for some unemployed Canadians to collect benefits.

Trudeau pledged to cut EI premiums though not as deeply as the Conservatives have already promised, leaving some $2 billion in the system which the Liberals will use to bankroll their changes.

Harper called that “a payroll tax hike” — because the reduction are not as deep as his planned one.

It’s a similar rhetorical attack that the Liberals once used against the Conservative leader when he first came to power in 2006 and declined to drop corporate taxes as fast as the Liberals had. The Liberals slammed that as a corporate tax hike at the time.

Harper read aloud a quote he attributed to Trudeau when asked about the small business tax rate, he said “we have to know that a large percentage of small businesses are actually just ways for the wealthier Canadians to save on their taxes.”

“I mean this is somebody running to be prime minister. You know both my wife and I have run small businesses, we understand what small business is. This is somebody running to be prime minister who thinks that a large percentage of the small businesses are tax scams. I mean seriously? Small and medium sized business is the backbone of this economy. That’s why we’re going to keep taxes down.”

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