Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff came out swinging at a speech in Baddeck, N.S., on Monday, continuing his criticism over the government's changes to the long-form census.
He said the Liberal party supports gathering information from the public to inform its policy decisions, while the Conservatives chose to scrap the long-form census for ideological reasons.
The Conservatives have argued that the census is invasive to Canadians and that the threat of jail time for those who refuse to comply is heavy handed.
Ignatieff accused the Conservatives of inflating the issue of jail time to defend their decision.
"We don't do politics like that," he said. "We're not here to make Canadians afraid; we‘re here to give Canadians hope."
He also chided Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day for comments made earlier this month regarding federal money for new prisons. Day said that although crime rates were down, "unreported crimes" were still a problem.
"Don't treat Canadians like fools," Ignatieff said.
He spoke during a Liberal caucus meeting in the resort town of Baddeck, where his party has gathered for three days of talks.
The Liberals are wrestling with the question of whether or not to force a fall election almost from the moment he sits down with his caucus to plot strategy for the Sept. 20 resumption of Parliament.
He was showing none of his cards Monday ahead of the party's annual summer retreat.
"We wait and see and watch what the government does," Mr. Ignatieff told The Canadian Press, when asked about the prospect of an election.
"If they're prepared to work with other parties in the House then, you know, that's fine. If not, then we'll have to take our responsibilities."
But he was quick to add that he's "not looking for a confrontation."
That ambiguity reflects an internal party debate over when to pull the plug on Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government.
Many Liberal strategists would prefer to wait until spring, giving the Tories government more time to accumulate political baggage, deal with a weakening economy and bring down a promised restraint budget and painful spending cuts.
Dan Brock, a former principal secretary to Ignatieff, said the Liberals may not be able to force an election even if they wanted to.
"I think this government is going to last, barring some kind of major scandal for the government -- which in politics can always happen," he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "I think you're going to need unanimity from all three opposition parties in order to bring down this Conservative minority government. And I think the likelihood of that happening … is going to be difficult."
Brock said the next election may be as much as 18 months away.
The Liberals are now hovering at about 30 per cent in public opinion polls, having narrowed the gap with the Conservatives to about three percentage points. That's an improvement over the 10-point gap they faced last spring but still hardly an ideal election launching pad.
As well, the Liberals fear they could easily negate the fragile gains they've made over the summer if they wind up continually propping up the minority Tories through the fall. By swallowing their objections to government initiatives simply to avoid an election they risk sapping party morale and creating the perception that they stand for nothing.
Ignatieff has acknowledged those concerns but promised to keep up the pressure on the government when Parliament resumes. "We will have a good, strong, aggressive strategy in the fall and we'll see what happens . . . People shouldn't underestimate me or underestimate our determination."
Ignatieff's summer-long bus tour has helped somewhat to bolster sagging Liberal morale and energize the party's grassroots.
And Brock said it is impossible to overestimate the importance of firing up the party's rank and file members.
"During an election they're the ones who're going door-to-door; they're the ones who are canvassing; they're the people who pull out the vote on election day," he said.
He said the summer-long tour has been a success for Ignatieff.
"It's certainly been a success … in many ways," he said. "On balance I think it's been a very good thing for his image."
It has also proven that the 62-year-old former Harvard professor has the stamina for a gruelling election campaign.
The Liberal leader has spent almost the entire summer on a bus, travelling almost 40,000 kilometres to 130 events in 10 provinces and two territories and shaking the hands of roughly 11,000 potential voters.
In fact, Ignatieff says he enjoyed the tour so thoroughly, he intends to continue travelling in the fall, hitting some of the places that he missed during the summer and unveiling more planks of his eventual election platform.
