Liberal Leader Stephane Dion kept up his party's attempts to portray Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the enemy of society's most vulnerable, but Harper counterattacked by trying to steer things back towards Tuesday's anti-terror law vote.
Dion demanded to know in Wednesday's question period how the Conservative budget, due to be released on March 19, would help Canada's poorest.
"He attacks women's equality, he attacks funding for literacy, he attacks the poor and vulnerable and he restricts their access to the courts, and how? By slashing their budgets. Will the prime minister stop his campaign of intimidation against decent Canadians, or will we see more of the same unfair treatment in the next budget?" Dion asked.
Harper cited new tax initiatives for seniors and family benefits brought in under his government.
In response to a question from NDP Leader Jack Layton, Harper calmly said the government would attempt to close any corporate tax loopholes "where they exist" and ensure everyone paid their fair share of taxes.
Before he did that, prime minister pounded on Dion's opposition to a Conservative bid to extend anti-terror measures first brought in by the Liberal party.
Despite resistance within his own party, Dion and the Liberals united with the other opposition parties to block the Conservative move.
"This is a party that protects human rights protection for aboriginal people and matrimonial property rights for aboriginal women and the party opposite opposes those measures, and Mr. Speaker, this is a party that yesterday voted against the victims of the Air India families, this is a party that called the victims of the terror attacks of 9/11 a sideshow -- shame on the Liberal party," Harper said.
On Tuesday, the House of Commons voted 159-124 against extend two controversial anti-terror provisions.
Just one Liberal MP voted with the government to support the motion: Ontario's Tom Wappel.
Montreal MP Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and human rights advocate who had argued for extending the measures, was present in the House but abstained from voting. Bill Graham and former prime minister Paul Martin were absent, and both have said they will not run in the next election.
One provision allows for investigative hearings of material witnesses; the other gives police the power to detain people suspected of planning to carry out a terrorist attack for 72 hours.
Without parliamentary approval, both measures will now expire on March 1.
Security expert and former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya told Â鶹´«Ã½net that despite the defeat of the measures, law enforcement and security officials will continue to do their work.
Whether sunsetting the clauses put the security of Canadians at risk was a matter of opinion, he said.
"The problem is that time is not always a luxury that we have when fighting terrorism," he said. ""It's a question of 'risk management' ... we're dealing with very radical people who are totally committed to commit certain actions and prepared to kill themselves in the process."
