Â鶹´«Ã½

On a campaign stop in rural Manitoba on Friday, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion seemed to be missing something.

He came with spending promises in the form of a $1.2 billion plan for farmers during a swing through western Canada and was joined by high-profile Liberal Ralph Goodale, and agriculture critic Wayne Easter.

However, mention of the Liberal 'Green Shift' plan was conspicuously absent.

CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver said it was the second day in a row that Dion avoided talking about his controversial 'Green Shift' carbon tax plan.

Oliver said the plan has been demoted and is no longer at the centre of the Liberals' election platform.

He said Dion only talked about the plan when reporters asked about it directly.

"The fact is the carbon tax has been dragging this campaign down very badly and here in western Canada especially there is a lot of opposition to it," Oliver told Â鶹´«Ã½net.

The western opposition to the Green Shift proposal includes Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who appeared on CTV's Mike Duffy Live from Banff, Alta. on Friday night. Wall said he doesn't support the initiative because his citizens would be hit with larger electrical bills.

"It's a 41 per cent increase, according to the analysis our environment ministry has done," Wall said. "Yes, there is a shift back into the province through some of these income tax benefits but according to our research the net loss is half a billion dollars."

The Conservatives have gone on the attacking saying that Dion is trying to distance himself from his carbon tax plan.

Campaigning on Friday night in the Ottawa Valley, Stephen Harper said Dion was trying to hide the carbon tax plan.

"Stephane Dion distancing himself from the Green Shift is like Tim Hortons distancing themselves from the donut," Harper said. "Just because the carbon tax is now a hidden agenda, doesn't mean it's going to go away."

Harper has jumped on the Green Shift's apparent new standing in the back seat, said CTV's Roger Smith, travelling with the Conservative Leader.

"Harper said the Liberals are backing away from the plan one candidate at a time and now the leader seems to be doing the same -- changing his policy in mid-stream and that's proof the Liberal party isn't ready to lead," Smith said.

The Tories also sent out a cheeky press release on the subject, complete with a line graph on Dion's "shrinking Green Shift."

But according to a release on the Liberal Party of Canada's website "The Green Shift is a cornerstone of the Liberal plan for Canada in the 21st century. This has been the case since it was launched three months ago and continues to be true today."

Election spending criticized

Dion's announcement on Friday also included a $400 million tax credit for farmers that slash emissions.

"We need to have a strong partnership between our farmers and the federal government," Dion said.

The package also includes the Green Farms Fund, which earmarks $250 million for farmers to switch to greener technologies, said Dion.

However, following the announcement, Dion was forced to defend his election platform as "fiscally prudent" after the Liberals were criticized for making spending promises they can't keep.

Adam Taylor of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told The Canadian Press his group is still in the process of breaking down the numbers for all the major parties.

Taylor said it's difficult to see how the Liberals will be able afford the spending promises without inching very close to a deficit.

"They either have to find the savings to pay for their spending promises, or be prepared to raise taxes to fund all their announcements."

Taylor said his group has pegged Liberal spending at close to $17 billion a year, taking into account all of their pre-election promises, while the Conservatives have had their spending totalled closer to $19 billion.

Nevertheless, Dion reiterated after his announcement that the spending promises would not be over-budget.

"We will not raise taxes. We will not cut programs," said Dion, defending his multibillion-dollar campaign platform.

"For too long, we have dealt only with disasters in agriculture. With this plan, a Liberal government will work in partnership with farmers to build a brighter future for Canadian farm families."

Later in the day, during a stop in Regina, Dion also pledged $80 million to help police battle crime like gang violence and organized crime.

The funds would be doled out by the provinces and the RCMP.

Despite the criticism of over-spending, Goodale, a former finance minister, said the party has crunched the numbers and that they make sense -- despite an economic downturn in the U.S.

"We have calculated the very best projections as they exist now -- of what the fiscal flexibility is -- and we have cut our cloth to make sure that it fits within that framework," he said.

Goodale wouldn't specifically comment on whether or not the party had altered any of their programs in response to the growing economic crisis south of the border.

"We are obviously very carefully taking into account the global volatility," he said.

With files from The Canadian Press