Harper takes swipe at Wynne's record on economy during interview with CP24

Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper has taken yet another swipe at the Ontario government, implying that the province under Premier Kathleen Wynne is “pretty close” to a situation where it will have to slash programs and raise taxes just to stay afloat.

The relationship between Harper and Wynne has been on the decline since the Conservative government refused a request to help the province administer a new provincial pension plan earlier this summer and during a one-on-one interview with CP24 in Whitby on Monday the Conservative Party Leader took a moment to criticize the Ontario government’s record on the economy.

“So many are countries are stuck on a treadmill where their deficit won’t go down. Their interest payments keep rising, they are cutting programs, raising taxes and then their deficit still doesn’t go down. Frankly the province of Ontario is getting pretty close to that situation,” Harper told CP24. “But in our country and federally we were able to grow out of that and now when we say we are delivering infrastructure we are doing it at a level we know we can sustain. When we are lowering taxes we know those taxes will stay down because our budget is balanced over the long term.”

Wynne has been openly campaigning on behalf of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau throughout the federal election and has on several occasions been vocal in her criticism of Harper, at one point calling on all Ontarians to defeat the three-term Prime Minister at the polls.

Speaking with CP24 at Hanet Plastics in Whitby, Harper slammed the public pension plans proposed by Wynne as well as Trudeau and federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair as “job killing payroll taxes.” Harper then stressed the importance of using tax breaks to help people save for their retirements rather than new government-administered pension plans.

“Our approach is we give people tax breaks. We just relaxed the rules for RRIF’s (Registered Retirement Income Funds), we created the tax free savings accounts and we think that is far better for the economy than what would be a job killing payroll tax,” he said. “Our fragile economy just can’t sustain that right now.”

Harper was asked other questions about issues concerning Toronto and his stance on the refugee crisis. Here are the highlights.

On Omar Khadr:

Harper was eager to talk about the campaign, the economy and transit during his 10-minute interview with CP24 but when it came to former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, the Conservative leader was selective with his words.

Asked for his thoughts on an Alberta judge’s decision to ease the bail conditions place on Khadr, allowing the 29-year-old to remove his electronic monitoring bracelet and fly to Toronto to visit family, Harper said he just hoped the safety of Canadians was taken into account.

Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2002 at the age of 15 and was detained for 10 years before eventually pleading guilty to a number of terrorism-related charges at a U.S. war crimes tribunal.

Khadr’s detention and prosecution was heavily criticized by human rights activists, however Harper has always branded the Canadian as a terrorist, despite his young age at the time of his arrest.

“Look I try and avoid commenting on specific court decisions but Mr. Khadr was convicted of very serious crimes including deliberate murder of an American medic,” Harper said Monday. “I just hope that as our courts are making these decisions they are taking the security of all of us into account.”

On funding Toronto transit:

In April’s federal budget, Harper’s Conservative government created a dedicated fund for transit projects that will provide $250 million in funding in 2017 before growing to provide $1 billion in 2019 and every year after that.

Though NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has vowed to create a $1.3 billion annual fund for transit projects and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has promised another $20 billion in funding over the next 10 years, Harper told CP24 on Monday that his party is better positioned to help build new public transit projects in Toronto and elsewhere without raising taxes.

“We are providing funds for the Scarborough subway, for the Sheppard line extension, for the extension of the Spadina line up into York (University), we are providing funds for Go Transit, we are putting money into the Mississauga and Brampton bus systems and of course I announced just before the campaign that we are making a huge contribution to Mayor Tory’s SmartTrack proposal,” he said. “We are doing an awful lot and we are doing this right across the country but we are doing it without raising people’s taxes and without borrowing a dime. We think that’s the responsible way to do it.”

On the deadlocked polls:

The federal leaders are now six weeks into what will become the longest campaign since 1872 but if you look at the polls the race is still very much up in the air with latest Nanos numbers suggesting that Harper’s Conservatives enjoy a two point edge on the Liberal and NDP parties.

With less than a month until Canadians head to the polls, Harper refused to offer any predictions on Monday, telling CP24 that what is at stake is too important to reduce to a “horse race or a beauty pageant.”

“This is about very serious issues. The consequences on the economy, things we are doing on security, these things will really affect people’s lives, their jobs in a very real way over the next four years,” he said. “I want to maintain that as the focus.”

On Canada’s role in helping ease the refugee crisis:

One of the issues that has merited considerable debate thus far in this election campaign has been the Syrian refugee crisis.

The topic was brought to the forefront of the federal campaign earlier this month when a photo of a dead two-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Turkey circulated in the media.

Discussing that now iconic photo with CP24, Harper said he was “close to tears” when he first saw it and immediately though of his now university-aged son Ben running around on the beach as a toddler.

Harper, however, said that the country must not take rash steps on the Syrian refugee crisis.

In the wake of the photo surfacing, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said that Canada should immediately accept 10,000 Syrian refugees and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau advocated bringing 25.000 Syrian refugees to the country as soon as possible.

Harper said the issue is a challenging one.

“Unfortunately as awful as that situation is; it’s a lot worse than that. We are talking about 15 million people who are displaced or are refugees. This is a very tough challenge and it requires in our judgment a prudent and balanced solution,” Harper said on Monday. “We are bringing in more refugees more quickly but at the same time we are selecting the refugees, they are not just walking in and we are making sure we screen for security, for health and pick the highest priority people, the people who are most vulnerable.”

To watch the full interview, click on the video player above.

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