Dion on the morally bankrupt Stephen Harper

From today’s Globe:

“There is a breach of trust between Stephen Harper and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador,” Mr. Dion said. “What he did for the people Newfoundland and Labrador he may do everywhere – everywhere – in Canada..”

The Liberal Leader said that Mr. Harper did the same to seniors who put their money into income trusts, believing the Conservative Leader's promise that he would not tax them, but who were then his by his government's heavy tax on the investment units.

“We Liberals, we will correct this terrible mistake,” Mr. Dion.

“How can we trust a man whose first gesture had been to [break] his promise when he decided to appoint a non-elected Senator as a minister, and his last gesture has been to [break] his promise when he decided to rush to an election when he had a law on fixed election dates.”

“This man has broken his promise again and again and again. We cannot have trust in him. We need to have a prime minister we can trust, and it's what I will provide to Canada,” Mr. Dion said.

Mr. Harper's Conservatives have faced a backlash ever since his government went back on its promise to allow the province to keep all future offshore oil and gas revenues under the Atlantic Accord, without clawbacks under the equalization system.

Mr. Williams, a highly popular Tory premier, has launched an anybody-but-Conservative campaign that is causing Mr. Harper's team grief on the campaign trail.

The Liberals have hopes of knocking off Conservative MP Fabian Manning in Avalon riding, and the Tories are also facing a tough fight to keep two St. John's seats vacated by two retiring MPs, Norm Doyle and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn. But the NDP is also making a stiff challenge is St. John's.

“It's not only because of the ABC that we will vote Liberal. It is not only because we cannot vote Conservative – it's impossible after what Harper did. It's because we Liberals, we have the best team, we have the best plan, we have the best leadership, and the best vision for Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Mr. Dion also launched into an attack on Mr. Harper's economic management, arguing Canada has lagged other major developed economies in recent months, and has had its worst economic performance since Brian Mulroney was in power in 1991.

He sought to sell his green shift as a plan that will cut income taxes and provide credits to middle-income and low-income Canadians, arguing that taxing carbon fuels instead will be good for individuals, the economy, and the environment.

“Cut income taxes. Shift to pollution. As simple as that.”

But one of Mr. Dion's best prospects to gain a Newfoundland seat, St. John's South-Mount Pearl Liberal candidate Siobhan Coady, said voters in her riding don't really understand the “green shift” yet.

There's been a lot of “misinformation” about the green shift, she said, so when it comes up, there's questions. “Really, it's more around the issue of ‘what is it?' They want to know more about it.”

She also conceded that a lot of Newfoundlanders heat their homes with oil. People accept that they will get tax cuts or refundable credits to offset it, she said, but she has asked the party to adjust the plan so they get it up front, before the bills come in.

“That's a message that we've sent, that I've sent, to the Liberal Party,” she told reporters just before Mr. Dion made an announcement beside the St. John's harbour.

But she said it's not the number one priority for voters at the door, in a province where there's a mood of anger at Mr. Harper.

“More often than not, it's about Mr. Harper and his broken promises,” Ms. Coady said.