Gala crowd, 'ivory towers' earn Harper scorn

On a day when Conservative cuts to certain arts and culture programs took centre stage on the campaign trail, Harper made an unapologetic appeal to working-class Canadians.

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up - I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said during a campaign stop in Saskatoon.

While some arts programs have been cut, Harper noted the overall budget of Canadian Heritage has climbed eight per cent.

Every group can't get everything it wants, he added. "Ordinary people understand we have to live within a budget."

Harper used the Saskatchewan stop to promise a crackdown on conditional sentences and house arrest. It was the second straight day of Conservative justice reform proposals that many criminologists say will increase prison costs and do nothing to deter crime.

"We're listening to ordinary people," Harper said in rebuttal to the body of academic research.

"Not people who work in ivory towers, but people who actually work on the street and deal with crime on a day-to-day basis."

His comments came as both Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton highlighted some $45 million in Tory cuts to programs that help Canadian musicians, authors, painters, sculptors and poets, among others.

Layton, campaigning in Quebec City, graphically described Harper as "grabbing hold of the aorta of the creative process here and putting the squeeze" on Quebec culture.

Dion visited a Vancouver TV production studio, where he noted B.C.'s TV and movie industry alone employs 36,000 people.

"How many carpenters, electricians earn their living because of our artists?" Dion asked. "The people queuing outside to have an audition, they are ordinary Canadians too."

Dion said Harper must be defeated on Oct. 14 because "he wants to pit everyone against everyone, Canadians against their artists."

The Liberals are promising to increase the film and TV production tax credit to 30 per cent from 25, costing the federal treasury $160 million.

The NDP says it would ensure that prime-time TV shows are written and produced by Canadians and feature Canadian stars . Layton also promised to restore the Tory arts cuts and to give new tax breaks to artists, writers and performers.

A major rally called Les Coupures, Ca Tue la Culture - or Cuts Kill Culture - was planned for Quebec artists Tuesday evening in Montreal. Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe planned to attend.

Harper's barbed shot at complaining elites attending galas came two weeks after his government was repeatedly excoriated by speaker after speaker at the televised French-language Gemini awards.

While the Conservative leader included Quebecers in his English-language pitch Tuesday - "ordinary Quebecers, like ordinary Canadians, understand that," said Harper - he declined to repeat his gala comment in French after a francophone reporter invited him to do so.

The Conservatives hope to make major inroads in Quebec in this election and see the province as the key to a majority mandate. But the culture cuts have proved a rallying point for anti-Harper forces in the province.

The NDP in particular is running extremely negative attack ads that subtly change the "Conservateur" party name to "Conservatueur" - making it a killer of culture.

Harper dismissed the furor as "a niche issue for some." He said most Canadians are more consumed with the country's economic management.

But Grace Gilroy, a producer who walked Dion through the set of CBS show "Harper's Island" at North Shore Studios in North Vancouver, said most Canadians do care about culture.

"I don't think he's taking into account that it affects every single part of our life, every day, right? Doesn't matter what's going on: If you're driving to work; turning on the radio; music; listening to any kind of newscast; information. It's all part of culture."

Gilroy said Harper only has to look around him to see the impact of culture.

But the prime minister really needs no outside advice. His wife Laureen is the honorary chair of the National Arts Centre's gala next month in Ottawa.

The day's culture wars overshadowed Harper's principal announcement, which dealt with tightening up the rules on house arrest.

He brushed aside the concerns of numerous criminologists who, having studied 25 years of American criminal justice policy, warn the Conservative approach won't reduce crime but will fill expensive prisons.

"Those are the people who have advised soft-on-crime policies for 30 or 40 years," Harper told a news conference. "Yes, we believe they are wrong."

The Conservatives have not released a projected costing of their criminal justice program - nor their full campaign platform - but Harper said the additional taxpayer burden would be minimal.

The NDP's Joe Comartin has estimated the capital costs required for new prisons alone could approach $1 billion, plus $500 million annually in operating expenses.

And those kind of taxpayer pocketbook issues - rather than crime or culture - appear likely to dominate the latter stages of the election campaign.

Canadian consumers got more bad news Tuesday as inflation hit its highest level in more than five years.

Statistics Canada reported the rate of increase in the cost of living rose in August to 3.5 per cent on an annual basis from 3.4 per cent in July, fuelled in large part by higher fuel prices.

The major parties have been exchanging fire over who would be the best custodian of the economy, with the Conservatives accusing the Liberals of wanting to spend the country back into the red or tax it into recession.