Layton to slam Harper in front of U.S. audience

Obama’s steering America in the right direction, while Harper has Canada pointed the wrong way, says the NDP leader.

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton is in San Francisco today to speak to a convention of the International Association of Firefighters, and he intends to air Canada’s dirty political laundry to our southern neighbours. In a preview of a speech he’ll deliver this morning obtained by the Globe and Mail, Layton compares Stephen Harper to Barack Obama, saying that even as Obama bolsters health care and injects stimulus money into a sagging economy, Harper is letting Canadian health care “erode” and is “turning off his stimulus tap.” Layton has in the past expressed great admiration for the American president, while there is no love lost between him and the prime minister.