A poll by Abacus Survey, February 5, gives the Liberals 32 percent support, with the Conservatives polling at 31 percent. Given that Erin O’Toole was recently elected Conservative Party Leader, support seems high considering most of Canada doesn’t know who he is.

A look at his new website shows he will fight for all the forgotten, those people who get up early to feed their families. The men and women who work hard and are proud to work.” He assures his supporters they can count on him.

Billing himself as the best defender of Harper’s legacy of austerity, reaction, and militarism, he hopes to gather more support. No doubt, he isn’t in a position to win if an election were called, but his support is strengthening, even without his claims being tested.

Photos Andre Forget / OLO

It would appear he is borrowing a page from former party leader Andrew Sheer, who billed himself as the common man; the average guy. The Conservative party and the public were quick to dismiss this notion when they discovered he was sending his children to private school on the public dime. The “common man” isn’t able to do that.

Harper was known for his attacks on unions, reductions in social spending and maintaining a running fight with war veterans. Defending Harper’s legacy and representing the working families across the country seems ambiguous, to say the least.

UNIFOR, the largest private sector union in Canada, evaluated Canada’s economic record under the Harper government. In their overall evaluation they said:

Of the 16 economic indicators reported above, the Harper government ranked last (or tiedfor last) among the postwar Prime Ministers in almost half (seven) of the cases. The Harper government ranked second worst in six more of the cases, and no higher than sixth out of nine postwar Prime Ministers in the remaining three cases. In not one of the indicators did the Harper government rank any better than sixth.

This statistical review confirms that it is far-fetched to suggest that Canada’s economy has been well-managed during the Harper government’s time in office. To the contrary, there is no other time in Canada’s postwar economic history in which Canada’s performance has performed worse than it did under the Harper government.

It’s one thing to defend Harper’s legacy as long as he doesn’t copy it. It’s another thing to follow his lead. When his government was stressed by the recession, there were asset sell-offs, major public services cuts, layoffs and left more than 2 million Canadian workers (11.5 per cent) remain unemployed or underemployed. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reported these cutbacks as the poor and the middle class paying the price of deficit reduction via social program cuts and continued high unemployment. They are collateral damage while the perpetrators get back to business as usual.

His election campaign spoke of “fiscal prudence” and a Fiscal Stability Plan. He wants to wind down emergency benefits and get the country on track to balance the budget in 10 years.

Albertans have been witnessing how a Conservative austerity budget works as implemented by Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney. Reducing business tax to create jobs hasn’t worked in Alberta and O’Toole should be looking at the ways Kenney has handled some of these issues that haven’t worked out the way he planned. Program cuts by the provincial government as well as a federal government, would be devastating to Alberta citizens.