OTTAWA - The Tory government is sticking to the issues it knows best going into the fall session.
A senior government official tells the Canadian Press that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his caucus will travel the country as part of a pan-Canadian consultation process on the next phase of the economic action plan.
The current round of stimulus spending wraps up in the spring and while Harper has said the government has no intention of keeping the purse strings open, there is pressure not to end the program entirely.
While the Conservative voice on the economy has always resonated well with Canadians, it was drowned out over the summer by the debate over the long form census.
In a bid to refocus, Conservative House Leader John Baird will lay out the government's fall agenda at a news conference on Thursday, centering it around three principles _ job creation, public safety, and economic regrowth and recovery.
A host of crime bills are already before the House for the fall, but the government's newest public safety push will be to target human smugglers who are bringing migrants into Canada illegally.
But with fears that waning U.S. economic growth threatens to bump up the unemployment rate in Canada, the Tories also want a strong and united national voice on the economy.
While Harper has been using recent campaign-style speeches to frame his government as being in a fight with an opposition coalition of the NDP, Liberals and the Bloc, that won't be the message Baird puts out on Thursday.
Instead, he'll stress that the Tories have no intention of going to the polls and want to work co-operatively with opposition parties to keep the economy a priority.
But the first few days back next week will see the four federal parties start off on a combative foot with a showdown over the gun registry.
