SUDBURY, Ont. - NDP Leader Jack Layton set his sights Thursday on two of his favourite targets: big banks and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Corporate greed is at the root of why the country's big banks opted not to fully match the Bank of Canada's half-point rate cut, Layton charged.
That reticence gave the governing Conservatives a "golden opportunity" to do right by ordinary families, but they fumbled it, he added.
Despite the central bank's move to stimulate the economy, the chartered banks decided to go with just a quarter-point cut.
"We are tired of that kind of greed," he told about 100 supporters at a campaign event."We believe that it's time for a government that stands up for ordinary Canadians in the face of banks who behave that way."
Layton accused Finance Minister Jim Flaherty of balking when given the opportunity to "set things right" by demanding that banks pass on all the interest savings to their customers.
"It's a failure of leadership on Mr. Harper's part that he hasn't insisted that this happen," Layton said after the rally.
That doesn't mean that an NDP government would force interest rates on banks, he added.
"We do want to tackle some of the injustices of the banks," such as ATM fees, which most Canadians oppose, Layton said.
"In fact, Mr. Flaherty said he agreed with us. But then he went down to meet with the bank CEOs and they told him to get lost. And he did."
Layton's efforts to cast himself as the White Knight on a quest to slay corporate greed doesn't seem to be helping him the polls, however.
The latest poll from The Canadian Press Harris-Decima put the Conservatives at 32 per cent support, with the Liberals at 27 and the NDP at 19.
The NDP is fighting off a combination of resurgent Liberal support and persistent economic uncertainty that threatens to drain away crucial votes in the dying days of the campaign.
"Heading into the final weekend, there are also signs that support for the NDP is at heightened risk of polarization -- a phenomenon that has occurred in the past, and largely to the benefit of the Liberals," said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson.
But Layton says the polls don't faze him.
"Everywhere I go, I see NDP momentum," he said. "Right here in Sudbury, in Winnipeg, in Edmonton -- everywhere we've gone."
"I've got to tell you, as far as I can tell as the skipper of this particular ship, there's a lot of wind in our sales right now."
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has painted Layton as a spendthrift and job killer whose economic platform will only worsen the economic turmoil that's spreading across the globe.
The party posted a video on its website of veteran New Democrat Reid Scott, who renounced his membership earlier this year and joined the Liberals.
Scott lambastes Layton as a "pure opportunist" who talks up the poor one minute, then makes a deal with Harper "to prop him up."
The NDP war room fired back, saying it wasn't the first time Reid had "flirted" with another party -- quoting his endorsement of Harper in 2004.
Layton has criss-crossed the country in the last leg of his campaign, trying to convince voters that his party can be trusted with the country's purse-strings.
But his plan to reverse $50 billion in corporate tax cuts brought in by the Tories has dogged him in recent days amid spreading fears of deeper economic turmoil and uncertainty.
Canada's big banks can handle it, said NDP supporter Fionn Closs, 33, who greeted Layton at a Tim Hortons in Espanola, Ont., where Layton chatted with patrons.
"I don't see the banks as weak. I see them as very strong," Closs said, while keeping a close watch on son Ethan, 7, and daughter Ayla, 2.
