OTTAWA - The economic battle lines for the next federal election appear to have been drawn, with the Liberals trashing Conservative handling of the troubled economy and the Tories warning against tax-and-spend Grits.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff led off Monday's question period in the House of Commons by accusing the Harper government of "presiding over the worst collapse in employment on record -- 300,000 jobs lost in the first three months of 2009."
He referred to the crisis as a "tsunami of job loss sweeping across the country."
The Conservatives responded by pouncing on his recent musings that taxes will eventually have to be raised to pay down the massive deficits being racked up by the Tory government as it pours billions into economic stimulus programs.
"I say to the leader of the Liberal party: stand in your place, tell us where and when you will raise these taxes and how much suffering working families in Canada will have to pay for his reckless (suggestion)," said Transport Minister John Baird.
Baird returned to the subject later, prompted by a planted question from a Tory MP.
"We are trying to encourage more jobs, more hope and more opportunity," Baird said. "However, the one thing we learned in the province of Ontario before 1995 is that raising taxes killed jobs."
Ignatieff retorted that Liberals -- who eliminated the massive deficit left by the last Tory government in the 1990s -- need no lessons in fiscal prudence from Baird.
"I will not take lectures from the Conservatives on fighting deficits. This side of the House cleaned up one deficit and we will clean up the next one."
Ignatieff did not directly address the issue of whether a Liberal government would hike taxes.
Last week, during a tour of southwestern Ontario, Ignatieff appeared to suggest tax hikes are inevitable to dig the federal government out of a deep deficit hole.
He later clarified that he would consider hiking taxes only as a last resort and only after the economy is fully recovered from the current recession.
