The Liberals have chosen high-profile income trust activist, Brent Fullard, to run against Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in the central Ontario riding of Whitby.

Fullard has been waging a fierce fight against the Conservative plan to tax income trusts, something the party promised not to do in the 2006 election.

Liberal campaign strategists say Fullard was chosen as part of a larger strategy to discredit the Conservatives' claims to strong economic management. And they want to do this right in the finance minister's backyard.

Whitby is right next to Oshawa, where thousands of autoworkers have lost jobs in recent months because of GM's restructuring. The Liberals are hoping to capitalize on what they say is the lack of a solid plan to help the manufacturing sector.

In the last election, Flaherty won the riding by fewer than 4,000 votes. He also held the riding as the provincial finance minister during the Mike Harris days.

Fullard, head of the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors, has helped organize countrywide protests against the Conservatives for their policy reversal.

Many investors, particularly many elderly ones, say they lost thousands of dollars as a result of the decision to tax the trusts.

Fullard has received the endorsement from retired CAW president Buzz Hargrove who was once rumoured to be the Liberal candidate himself to take on Flaherty.

In addition to his work on income trusts, Fullard worked for a brief time at the GM plant in Oshawa, a fact that Liberals are hoping won't go unnoticed.

—Louise Elliott