Jack Layton's response to the Conservative platform

I want to make a statement today about what working families are thinking today about the economy. And about Mr. Harper's election platform.

Ordinary working Canadians today are worried about their savings, their pensions, their homes, and their jobs. Families want to know that they are going to be safe and secure.

And they have reason to be worried. Years of deregulation, recklessness, greed, and irresponsibility under conservative governments north and south of the border are coming home to roost.

The greedy are being consumed by their greed. Gambling with our savings.

Ordinary families are worried that the greedy are going to take the rest of us down with them.

In a few short days this election is going to be over. And after that, it is going to fall to all of us in Parliament to do some very serious work, very quickly. We are going to have to make sure that the Canadian banking and financial system is safe and secure.

And we are going to have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support our real economy. That we are protecting the savings, pensions, homes and jobs of ordinary Canadian families in these tough economic times.

I pledge today that my party will go into the next Parliament committed to working closely with all our colleagues on our plan to address these issues, quickly and effectively.

I also pledge that in everything we do, first and always, we are going to look out for the interests of ordinary working families. We see today what happens when governments don't.

From the first days of this campaign, I have committed to a top-to-bottom, systematic review and re-regulation of the banking and financial system. We need to address bank capitalization; disclosure; and risk management.

I'm pleased to see that Mr. Dion now, more-or-less, supports these ideas. I urge the Prime Minister and Mr. Duceppe to support our plan as well.

I have also proposed that we focus on investing in our real economy, instead of on unconditional tax breaks to the portions of our economy that need help the least. I've spelled out a detailed, realistic, step-by-step plan to do this.

We need to introduce targeted support and investment, to revitalize manufacturing and forestry, and to promote the green jobs of the future;

We need to address our infrastructure deficits;

We need to rebuild apprenticeship and training;

We need to reinvest in mass transit;

We need to help families make ends meet, in good times and bad, through better income support for families with children, and by making it easier for them to balance work and childcare.

Concrete measures to re-regulate financial institutions, and this plan to invest in the real economy, should be introduced concurrently at the time of the next federal budget. That budget should be introduced in the next 100 days.

I believe these ideas would be broadly supported in the next Parliament. I urge outgoing Prime Minister Harper to support them as well.

I am urging Mr. Harper to support these proposals, because I think the platform he outlined today completely fails to address what our economy and our country need in the next four years. Mr. Harper's response to the crisis in the banking system is to say that everything is fine, nothing needs to change, and there are no problems.

R.B. Bennett couldn't have said it better himself in 1930.

Mr. Harper's response to the clouds gathering over our real economy is to say that we don't need to care about manufacturing, we don't need to care about forestry. We can just stuff more tax money into the largely foreign-owned oil business and the banks, and all will be well.

He's fundamentally wrong about that. What did he offer the average Canadian family today?

Nothing.

The additional help he is offering Canadians with children amounts to $2.67 a month.

His pittance of a tax credit to cover music lessons will give little comfort to mothers and fathers of ordinary families worried about losing their jobs and their homes.

These kinds of proposals worked for Mr. Harper last election. But they completely miss the mark in these times. What Mr. Harper told ordinary working families today is that he doesn't care about them.

Well I do.

Ordinary working families know that I will fight for them each and every day, first and always.

Mr. Harper showed us today why he doesn't deserve to be re-elected as Prime Minister.

I'm asking for a mandate to put working families first.

If I am elected to succeed Mr. Harper, we will address the issues facing our economy seriously, immediately, and in partnership with every party in Parliament.