TORONTO - Fed up with opposition attacks over the looming harmonized sales tax, Ontario's Liberal government went on the offensive Tuesday, calling Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak shifty and dishonest.
Three Liberal cabinet ministers fanned out to different Opposition-held ridings to talk about the benefits a single sales tax will mean for businesses, and to point out what the government says is the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the Tories on the issue.
"As difficult as this (tax) package is, enough Ontarians get it that they're prepared to stand up to his shiftiness, his phoniness and his complete lack of sensitivity to the importance of giving new business and small business especially a leg up as they make investments to hire people and create jobs," said Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.
"We're going to be driving this point home over the next month, right across Ontario, with a lot of individual stories talking about how important this policy is."
Duncan kicked off the Liberal offensive by visiting Hudak's Niagara-West Glanbrook riding -- a very rare move for a cabinet minister into an opposition leader's turf -- to talk about the 13 per cent HST and the Tories' campaign against it.
"Mr. Hudak is shifty, he has not told the truth about the policy," Duncan said. "There's lots of people out there, right in his own backyard, who think this is absolutely the direction to go in."
Duncan visited a new company in Hudak's riding, Canada Wide Recycling, whose owner said the HST will save him money and allow him to hire more staff.
However, Hudak said he was confident most people in his riding, and the rest of the province, oppose the move to a single sales tax because it will now apply the eight per cent provincial portion of the sales tax to such things as home heating fuel and gasoline.
"There's no doubt there's a growing stench of panic around the McGuinty government that families across the province are reacting strongly against the HST tax grab and hydro rate increases," Hudak said in an interview.
"When the Liberals are on thin ice they resort to personal attacks."
While Duncan was in Hudak's riding, Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello was talking about the HST in Nepean, home to Tory Lisa MacLeod, and Energy Minister Brad Duguid was speaking to the Whitby board of trade in Deputy Tory Leader Christine Elliott's riding.
It's the start of a month-long blitz of opposition-held ridings to show the government is prepared to defend its HST policy in the days leading up to its implementation, said Duncan.
"When Gordie Howe played hockey, you had to keep your elbows up in the corner, so if (Hudak) thinks we're not going to put up a fight and set the record straight about all the falsehoods, the hypocrisy -- don't forget he and his party have supported this for many years -- we're going to be in his riding, we're going to be in every one of their ridings in the next month, just driving home the truth," said Duncan.
"This shiftiness, this lack of policy and this what I would call dishonest approach to legitimate public debate is a disservice to Ontarians."
Duncan said he was tired of Hudak and the Conservatives trying to mislead and scare people about the single sales tax.
