Day five of election campaign

TORONTO, Ont. – Battleground GTA gets the attention of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton, Wednesday.

At a campaign stop in Oshawa, Ont., NDP Leader Jack Layton spoke about creating jobs. Harper will start the day in Brampton before heading to Montreal.

Layton said he wants to dedicate $2.3 billion to a job-creation plan that would lower taxes for small business and provide a tax credit for companies that take on new hires.

He said the package would be paid for by reversing Conservative cuts to the corporate tax rate. Layton also said he’d push the corporate tax rate back up to the 19.5 per cent of 2008, instead of the 16.5 per cent under recent cuts by the Tory government.

The NDP figures the corporate income-tax reversal would give Ottawa an extra $5.9-billion to play with. But at the same time, Layton said he wants corporate tax rates to be competitive with the United States, pledging to keep the combined federal-provincial rate below the U.S. rate.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper once again tried to turn voters attention to his party’s budget but he also took a shot at the opposition during a campaign stop, Wednesday, in Brampton.

“Mr. Ignatieff, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois would have you believe that they can move the economy forward by spending billions of more dollars through tax hikes. Tax hikes that will drive businesses and employers away from Canada,” said Harper.

Harper then took his campaign to Montreal where he stood at a rally with Conservative candidate Agop Evereklian, who was once castigated by a Quebec judge for writing bad cheques while his business was going bankrupt. Evereklian was ordered to pay back $29,632 in 2005

In British Columbia, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff revealed a proposal to boost pensions and help people save for retirement.  His plan includes an increase to the guaranteed income supplement by $700-million a year.

“Hard working Canadian who work all their lives deserve to have a secure and decent and humane retirement and never face the spectre of poverty,” said Ignatieff.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May is still insisting it makes no sense that she be shut out of the nationally televised leaders debate.  May claims the decision to not include her in the debate amounts to sabotage of her party’s national campaign.

Meanwhile, religious leaders questioned Election Canada’s decision to hold the advance poll vote on Easter weekend — that includes Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Monday.

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