Trudeau a big spender and soft on criminals, PM tells Calgarians

Prime Minister Stephen Harper hammered Liberal leader Justin Trudeau in a speech to party faithful at his annual Calgary Stampede barbecue. With a federal election looming next year, Harper accused Trudeau of having nothing substantial to offer to voters, contrasting the Conservative government’s accomplishments with the Liberals’ positions on the economy and crime.

Harper’s speech Saturday made scant mention of the Opposition New Democrats and didn’t single out leader Tom Mulcair by name.

The prime minister said both the Liberals and NDP offer the alternative of spending without any fiscal responsibility. “Never, ever cut any spending; Spend more, now and always; let the deficit rise, increase taxes. You can look around the world at any number of basket cases to see how that works out.”

The prime minister said he is particularly proud of the progress made in implementing the Conservative agenda to ensure streets and communities are safe.

“And if, God forbid, Canadians are attacked, or robbed, if they lose someone they love to a murderer, or if they see their children driven to suicide by bullying and harassment the first thing they want their government to do is not make excuses for criminals, but to stick up for victims,” Harper said.

Harper said Canadians need to be aware that Trudeau wants to undo all the good work that his government has achieved.

“In fact, Justin Trudeau has said he will repeal our reforms. Repeal, for example our mandatory prison sentences for serious, violent crime,” he said.

“In other words, I like to describe it this way: he will restore that key liberal principle of criminal justice … that the offender must be considered innocent even after being proved guilty.”

He said the Liberals will offer to give voters anything they want.

“Want something from the government? Whatever you want, they’ll spend money on it and you can have it. Don’t worry about who’s going to pay for it. Don’t like crime? Just legalize marijuana and, somehow, it will all go away.”

“He has nothing — absolutely nothing — of substance to offer.”