Harper will wreck economy

TheStar.com - Harper will wreck economy, Layton charges

Look what Harper has done already: taken a surplus and turned it into a deficit by giving away 50 billion dollars to already wealthy corporations.

Canada risks a U.S.-style economic crisis if the Conservatives are re-elected, NDP Leader Jack Layton says.

Layton said Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's outdated economic policies of huge corporate tax cuts reflect those of the United States that have led to the near economic collapse there.

"Stephen Harper's understanding of the economy is simply based on old ideas that you give giant tax cut to huge corporations and somehow everything will work out," said Layton, speaking today to a partisan rally at a golf course overlooking the city.

"Well we have seen that model before and we are watching it self-destruct south of the border. We can't afford in Canada to have that kind of economic orthodoxy for four more years in the House of Commons with a Prime Minister who doesn't get it."

Layton said Canada is already reeling from the loss of 400,000 manufacturing jobs in the past five years, adding that many of these same people are in desperate financial straits wondering how they are going to pay the bills and mortgage.

"This is exactly what happened in the United States. More and more people couldn't cover those basic costs and the 'real' economy began to falter long before the crisis we have seen in the last couple of weeks," he said.