Put NDP under the microscope, Ignatieff says

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Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says the NDP should be put "under the microscope" ahead of the May 2 federal election.

Ignatieff said he believes the policies put forward by the New Democrats don't hold up to close examination.

"Put the microscope on the platform," he said. "It'll end up in raising taxes, and in my view, it's just a bad plan for the Canadian economy."

The Liberal leader said he has been under the microscope for five years, and that it’s time to extend the scrutiny to Jack Layton's party.

“Let’s play fair here, everybody has to go through this, that’s what an election is for,” he said during a campaign event in Quebec City.

Ignatieff has been dealing with an apparent surge in support for the NDP and Layton.

“People don’t get elected by polls, they get elected by voters,” Ignatieff told reporters Thursday. “Voters have a choice to make and many voters have not actually made the choice yet."

Ignatieff also blasted the Conservative Party, saying Stephen Harper's government is “corrupt, is contemptuous of democracy and incompetent economically.”

The Liberal leader's stop in Quebec comes a day after former prime minister Jean Chrétien helped rally Liberal support at an event in the Toronto area.

Chrétien told the crowd he feared for the country Canada was becoming, saying Canadians could start to lose their values "one by one" if they're not careful.

The former prime minister also revived the notion of a hidden Conservative agenda and accused the Tories of taking credit for Liberal economic policies that he says helped get Canada through the recession.

Battle in Quebec

Harper was also scheduled to campaign in Quebec on Thursday, which is the last day for Canada's federal party leaders to pitch their campaign to voters before the royal wedding in London.

Harper will visit Sainte-Foy, Que., after a stop in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe spent the morning shoring up support in Rivière-du-Loup, followed by stops in Montmagny and Beauport-Limoilou.

He was asked that he thought of both Ignatieff and Harper being in Quebec near the end of the campaign.

"Well, it means certainly there's a fight in Quebec City," Duceppe said. "I mean, three of us are there. It means there's certainly something happening there, and it is a very, how could I say that, it's a hard fight for each of us."

Layton, meanwhile, was set to campaign in Yellowknife and Saskatoon.

In B.C., Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was to spend the morning campaigning with Green Party deputy leader Georges Laraque, followed by campaign stops in Saanich and Galiano Island.

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