OTTAWA - What does Stephen Harper playing a piano and crooning a Beatles tune have to do with stimulating the sputtering economy?
That's what Liberals want to know after discovering that a federal website -- ostensibly designed to inform Canadians about the government's economic action plan -- includes a link to the prime minister's recent piano-playing debut at the National Arts Centre.
They say it's further evidence of an inappropriate propaganda campaign by the Tories to use taxpayer-funded stimulus programs for partisan advantage.
Liberal MP David McGuinty said Friday there's only one possible reason for linking the website to the Harper video: To soften the prime minister's chilly image.
"There's only one reason you do that: To drive up the perception of Stephen Harper as a centrist, as a man of the people for political benefit," McGuinty said in an interview.
"He will use anything, anything at his disposal, including public monies, to achieve . . . his ultimate objective, which is a majority government."
The link comes amid controversy over revelations that as many as 50 Tory MPs and cabinet ministers have presented personalized cheques or used the Conservative party logo while delivering government funding.
The Liberals have lodged formal complaints with Parliament's independent ethics watchdog against 47 Tory MPs. On Friday, they released photos of two more, including Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt wearing a hockey jersey emblazoned with the Conservative logo and Harper's name while announcing a $500-million program for community skating rinks.
"The line between party and government is blurred in everything the Harper Conservatives do," charged Liberal MP Wayne Easter.
Harper repeated Friday that it's "totally unacceptable to use a partisan logo for a government announcement. That's the government's policy."
But he appeared to suggest use of the logo was an isolated incident involving only one Tory MP, Gerald Keddy.
At the same time, Harper condoned the practice of MPs signing their names on mock government cheques, leaving the impression they are personally funding projects in their ridings. He argued that "hardworking Conservative MPs . . . deserve the credit for making sure these things happen."
"I would encourage the MPs of the other parties, rather than complain about these projects or complain about cheques, get out there and make something happen as well," Harper added.
"That's what people want. They don't want people to just oppose everything in the middle of a recession."
Harper used his appearance at a funding announcement in Toronto to deflect opposition charges that infrastructure cash has gone disproportionately to ridings held by the Conservatives.
He noted that the Tories "do not hold a single seat" in Toronto but have funded more than 500 infrastructure projects in the city. He further pointed out that three of four funding announcements he's made this week were in ridings not held by the Tories.
Harper did not comment on the link to his piano playing at the arts centre gala a few weeks ago. But a spokesman later defended the link to the video from the government's economic action plan website.
Dimitri Soudas said the website links to the prime minister's YouTube site with a host of video clips including some Harper speeches and funding announcements related to the economic action plan.
Soudas said the video of the singing PM pops up immediately only because it is the most recent video posted on the site.
"At the core of this is how petty the Liberals are becoming," Soudas said. "Instead of focusing on the economy, they're becoming webmasters."
The action plan website has been the subject of considerable controversy over the last few weeks.
Critics have slammed it for appearing to be a Conservative propaganda tool rather than a non-partisan information source. The blue motif is similar to that on Conservative party websites and is plastered with photos of Harper, although many of the pictures were removed after The Canadian Press drew attention to the issue.
The website is administered by the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of Harper's office. Sources have told The Canadian Press that PCO bureaucrats were reluctant to take charge of the site and have raised concerns about its partisan nature.
On another ethical front Friday, a non-partisan group asked the ethics, lobbyist and elections commissioners to investigate a fundraiser organized for Tory MP Rick Dykstra.
Democracy Watch said Dykstra hosted 60 "friends" last month in the owner's box at Toronto's Roger's Centre for a Blue Jays baseball game. The donors got tickets to the game, access to the owner's suite, food and drinks, an opportunity to attend batting practice and meetings with unidentified federal cabinet ministers and Blue Jays players.
The group wants to know what, if anything, Dykstra or the party paid for the various perks -- particularly the owner's box which can't be rented and is only used with permission of owner Rogers Communications Inc., a company which lobbies the federal government.
