Bells, but no whistles, as Harper attacks

In this regular feature until Election Day, the National Post captures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign.

As the iconic “ka-ching” sound of a old-timey cash register played over the loudspeakers, local citizen Nicole Ropp took a pile of $10 and $20 bills and placed them — bill by bill — onto a small table labelled “The Cost of Liberal Tax Hikes.”

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, wearing a tieless dress shirt with sleeves rolled up, explained to the crowd that a Liberal government would take away $3,360 in annual childcare cheques from Ropp’s family.

“So let’s quite literally put that money on the table,” he said.

Nearby children clutching signs reading “Economy #1 Priority” fidgeted nervously as the pile of tens and twenties steadily grew.

“That’s going to take a while,” quipped Harper, before joking that the RCMP security needed to guard the swelling stack of cash.

Staged in a Windsor, Ont., fruit processing plant, it was an unusually flamboyant stunt for a Conservative campaign that has largely consisted of Harper delivering dry speeches in front of crowds of multiethnic supporters.

It was also notable for zeroing in on the Liberals.

While Harper has persistently said he does not pay attention to polls, mentions of the NDP were conspicuously absent after the New Democrats saw their support plummet to third place.

Sound effects, props and giant cheques have largely been absent from the 2015 campaign thus far, though they may be cropping up more and more as parties attempt to pull away from a race still deemed far too close to call.

In the recent U.K. election, Labour Leader Ed Miliband tried to shore up falling support in the final stretch by unveiling the Pledge Stone, a giant stone slab spelling out the six points of the party’s platform. After Miliband’s subsequent defeat at the hands of a Conservative majority, the “Ed Stone” is said to have been clandestinely hidden from public view at a London masonry warehouse.

On Monday, a giant pay stub accompanied Nicole Ropp as she slowly slapped down crisp bills.

Made out to “Typical Canadian” at “123 Maple St., Smalltown, Canada,” it laid out $5,400 in costs for “Liberal payroll tax” and the cancellation of income splitting.

The biggest cost, however, was $1,920 for “eliminate UCCB per child.”

The Liberals have proposed payroll taxes and an end to income splitting, but the party has stopped short of an outright elimination of childhood tax credits.

While the NDP plan to swap out the UCB with a system of government subsidized childcare centres, the Liberals would exchange the Conservatives’ Universal Childcare Benefit in favour of a nontaxable child benefit tied to income.