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On Day 1 of the federal election campaign, NDP leader Jack Layton may have wished to appear on the offensive venturing into a campaign rally in Stephen Harper's riding, however, the new NDP election signs with a green maple leaf appeared targetted as an effort to thwart what I anticipate will be NDP voters going to Elizabeth May's Green party.

Layton rambled on associating Conservative Party policy with that of President George W. Bush, although under Harper's stewardship, Canada has eradicated "tens-of-billions" of dollars of debt reducing the tax burden on future generations and leaving Canada better able to weather the storm of retiring, broken-hipped, baby-boomers on our health-care system.

The character that Layton could more precisely align with Bush is, in my opinion, none other than NDPer-turned-Stephane-Dion-Liberal Bob Rae, who, as Ontario's premier, doubled the provincial debt by more than $40 billion in a single term of government in a reckless pillaging of future Ontarian's standard of living.

It was indeed a paradox that Dion launched his campaign in Ottawa in the constituency of Liberal MP David McGuinty, brother of Premier Dalton McGuinty, who pledged "no new taxes" than sucker-punched the middle-class with a $400 to $900 health levy while shamefully deleting from OHIP eye exam coverage for the working poor and seniors.

And just when Torontonians thought it couldn't get worse, along comes legislation from the Liberals at Queen's Park granting Mayor David Miller the power to penalize longtime Toronto residents selling one Toronto property and moving to another with a hefty land transfer tax, then a new personal vehicle tax, pulverizing drivers already struggling with record-high fuel prices. Then came the new trash bag fees in the name of the tree-huggers as if property taxes skyrocketing at well above the Statistics Canada inflation rate for Toronto wasn't enough.

Thankfully, the good Conservative's offset "most of the damage to family pocketbooks" inflicted by Miller's and McGuinty's insatiable appetite to spend, which may have been averted if the teacher's and TTC's union settlements weren't year-after-year surpassing the inflation rate and private sector agreements in what many deem nothing short of political pandering by politician's with no backbone to guard the interests of those they represent first and foremost.

David C. Searle