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Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a strong message for Liberal leader Stephane Dion Thursday: work with the government to pass legislation or prepare for an election.

Harper took questions from reporters in Levis, Que., where the Conservatives were spending the final day of their caucus discussing economic and energy-related issues.

A day after challenging Dion to "fish or cut bait," Harper said that the Tories will push ahead with their legislative agenda and "you can bet some of these will be confidence motions."

"What we will not allow is a situation where Mr. Dion tries to say 'We won't to defeat you, but we won't let you pass anything either,'" the prime minister said.

"Either we govern or we go to an election."

Harper said several times during the 20-minute press conference that he looked forward to an election.

"The opposition doesn't want to have an election because they are afraid of the polls," he said. "Our government is ready to face the people on our record and on our vision for the future.

"We're comfortable to face the population anytime we have to."

Harper repeatedly hammered Dion's "green shift" carbon tax plan -- saying that it was a tax grab and not a credible environmental plan.

"It's our strong belief as a government that we are not going to deal with the problems of the Canadian economy, either now or in the future, by imposing more and new taxes on Canadians," Harper said.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife, reporting from Levis, Que., made note on Â鶹ӰÊÓnet how easily available the Tory cabinet was to the media Thursday. This was a departure for a government that has been notoriously frosty in its relations with the press.

"Obviously they smell an election in the offing or else they wouldn't be so open to us," Fife said. 

Polls show that the Conservatives appear to be in a horse race with the Liberals, despite the public's lukewarm response to Dion's carbon tax plan. A mid-July Harris/Decima poll had the Liberal's leading the Conservatives 31 to 30.

Josee Legault of the Montreal Gazette noted on Â鶹ӰÊÓnet that Harper stopped short of guaranteeing a Conservative victory if there was a fall vote.

"He didn't sound quite as cocky as he used to," she said. "He came back to Stephane Dion's carbon tax, time and time again.

"Obviously he thinks that the Liberals . . . are more of a threat than they were six months ago."

Legault said that Harper needs more substantive environmental policies going into the elections, as the Tories trail other parties on that issue.

Peter Van Loan, the government's house leader, has said the government has no plans to prorogue Parliament and come back with a new throne speech -- a confidence motion that would enable the opposition to trigger an election.

Dion has said he believes Canadians are increasingly ready for a federal election. But he told CTV's Question Period on Sunday that an election was possible sometime between now and the election date fixed in law for October 2009.

Fife said the Conservatives believe their steady management of the economy, their law and order agenda, and their overall governance will result in an election win.

Still, the Tories are having trouble getting women to vote for the party and they have no real voter base in cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, Fife said.