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OTTAWA - Stephen Harper is claiming a gold medal for economic management, equating Canada's record performance at the Olympics with the achievements of his government.
The prime minister boasted Thursday that the minority Conservatives have put Canada on track to emerge stronger and faster from the worldwide recession than any other industrialized country.
But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff suggested the government is off the rails. He said the Tories have no plan - other than gimmicks and empty symbolic gestures - to ensure Canada will be able to compete in the uncertain economic ahead.
The two leaders made their arguments during debate on last week's throne speech, which outlined the government's "recalibrated" agenda for a new session of Parliament.
Ignatieff said the throne speech shows no sign of a recalibrated agenda, proving that Harper's controversial suspension of Parliament was strictly to "dodge questions on the Afghan detainee scandal."
Harper spent the first five minutes of a 20 minute speech Thursday - which for the first time was streamed live on YouTube - extolling the funding, training and hard work that produced Canada's record gold-medal haul at last month's Winter Games.
The Olympic lesson, the prime minister said, is "when the challenge is understood, when the goal is clearly defined and when Canadians are given the tools, Canada can get things done."
He said his government has applied the same approach to the combat mission in Afghanistan, relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and the mass immunization campaign against H1N1 influenza.
Similarly, Harper said his government's approach to last year's recession and this year's nascent recovery has been imbued with the same can-do spirit.
Canada was spared the worst of the global recession due to its strong fiscal position and regulation and oversight of the banking system, he said.
And he claimed Canada is emerging faster than most from the recession because the government introduced "one of the largest, most comprehensive and most effective stimulus packages in the world while keeping our deficit and debt levels ... to a fraction of what they are elsewhere."
Harper reiterated his government's intention to roll out the second phase of stimulus funding this year and then begin taking steps to reduce the record $54-billion deficit it ran up - without raising taxes or making "devastating cuts" to core health, education and pension services.
"This country is going to emerge from this recession in the strongest position of any first-tier economy," he predicted. "That is our purpose. That is our plan. And Canada will get it done."
By contrast, Harper implied that Ignatieff's approach involves "unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, dithering on deficits and difficult positions."
And he warned that such "bad choices" would doom Canada to "years of debt, stagnation and joblessness."
"A country of 33 million people that can win the most gold medals ever at an Olympic Games does not deserve that," he concluded.
Ignatieff predicted the throne speech will be remembered for its empty symbolism - promises to create a Seniors Day and a Vimy Day and it's short-lived promise to consider gender neutral wording for the national anthem - rather than any serious attempt to make the strategic investments in green technology, renewable energy and learning that will be required to compete in the new economy.
"He was thinking we're in the worst economic downturn in half a century, 1.6 million Canadians are out of work, our pensions system is in crisis and Canadian women are still making 72 cents on the dollar," Ignatieff scoffed.
"What we really need now? New words to O Canada ... We were told to expect vision, ambition, great plans. There is none of that here."
Ignatieff said a Liberal government would invest strategically in a comprehensive learning strategy, from child care to post-secondary education and research.
"That's how we Liberals want to develop a workforce for the new economy. That's how we would create opportunities for our kids."
After his speech, Ignatieff refused once again to specify how he'd find the money for such investments. He said his eventual election platform will include "a credible, costed program" and suggested Liberals can be trusted to eliminate the deficit run up by the Tories, just as they did in the 1990s.
NDP Leader Jack Layton slammed the throne speech and subsequent budget for offering "more free-flowing giveaways for big banks and oil companies and precious little hope for the victims of the recession."
And Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe complained that the speech does nothing to address any of Quebec's specific needs and actually runs counter to the province's interests in some areas, such as proceeding with plans for a national securities regulator.
"For them, it's as if Quebec doesn't exist," he said, using the speech to rally support for the flagging sovereignty movement.
Just over 8,000 people tuned into Harper's speech on YouTube. Viewers were encouraged to send questions to the prime minister, some of which Harper is to answer next week - once again, via YouTube.
Ignatieff, who has conducted several online town halls, said technology can be useful in reaching out to Canadians. But he chided Harper for using it to avoid meeting face to face with voters.
