TORONTO - After nearly one year on the job Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has been reluctant to spell out his policy ideas, but he made it clear Monday that he's taking a hard line on crime.

Hudak demanded the Ontario government stop payment on HST rebate cheques for people serving 90 days or less in provincial jails, saying it was wrong that criminals would qualify for government rebates as long as they filed a tax return last year.

"I believe the vast majority of families agree with me," insisted Hudak. "They will be shocked to learn that Dalton McGuinty is mailing his HST bribe cheques to jails to go to prisoners."

Most people who are sentenced to 90 days or less are not hardened criminals. They are often convicted of offences like speeding, parking infractions or causing a disturbance in a public place. About half of them serve their time on weekends.

That did nothing to sway Hudak, who lumped all criminals -- from serial killers to traffic offenders -- into one group that should be ineligible for an HST rebate cheque.

"Whether it's 90 days or a 90-year sentence, I don't think the people who are in our prisons, convicted criminals, should be receiving these HST bribe cheques," he said.

"I think it's wrong."

Hudak displayed no sympathy for the impact of his hardline position on children of someone serving 90 days in jail.

"There's no doubt that when criminal activity takes place that has impacts on the rest of the family," he said.

"Obviously the individual who chose to break the law chose to forget about his or her family in the first place."

Hudak learned from the hard-right approach adopted in 1995 by his mentor, Mike Harris, and is test-driving his justice policy well in advance of next year's provincial election, said Henry Jacek, professor of political science at McMaster University in Hamilton.

"He wants to distinguish himself from the present government and try to present the view that he's really hard on law breakers and that the Liberal government is not hard enough," said Jacek.

"So that seems to be sort of a wedge issue that he's going to try to use in the next election."

Hudak's tough stance on criminals is the Opposition leader's way of establishing his strong conservative credentials, but also a chance for the Tories to gauge public reaction to a hard-right agenda, said Jacek.

"I think what they'll probably do is see what kind of response they get from people," he said. "If they interpret the response as positive then I think you might see something like this surface in the election campaign."

Hudak said he was convinced most Ontario taxpayers would agree with his position that no HST rebate cheques should go to prisoners in jail.

"Surely there's got to be a price for breaking the law in the province, and I believe that price should include not receiving these HST bribe cheques from taxpayers," he said.

About 1,100 of the 8,500 people in Ontario jails are serving sentences of 90 days or less.