Canadians who sign their kids up for organized hockey and other sports would be eligible for a tax credit under a Conservative government, Tory Leader Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The tax credit, aimed at parents with children under 16, would allow them to claim $500 in registration fees per child, to "provide modest tax assistance for families who have kids in sports and fitness activities," Harper said.

It's another part of the Conservatives' effort to appeal to ordinary Canadian families. They have already announced a child-care allowance of $1,200 a year per child under six as well as a cut in the GST.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper makes a campaign stop at a hockey arena in Buckingham, Que. Monday, Dec. 12. (CP Photo/Jonathan Hayward)

"Government needs to give working families a break. We need to help families so that cost is not a barrier to help keeping children active," Harper said at a campaign stop at a hockey rink in Buckingham, Que., just south of Ottawa.

The tax credit, in fact, would save parents about $80 per child per year.

Harper said the idea would encourage families to keep their children more active.

Liberal Leader Paul Martin was quick to respond to the announcement, telling reporters in Ancaster, Ont., that a tax credit of this sort is "a good idea."

"It's exactly the kind of thing that [Minister of State for Public Health] Carolyn Bennett has been talking about in terms of healthy living," Martin said.

"With respect to tax credits ... we also believe the principal way you get money into people's pockets is to cut personal income taxes for the middle class, and that is where our focus is going to be."

Harper saddened by Liberal attack

Harper also took aim at the Liberals for an aide's comment that parents could spend the Tory child-care allowance on beer and popcorn.

"I feel a certain sadness when I see these kinds of comments," he said.

Martin's director of communications, Scott Reid, said on the weekend that parents might spend child-care money promised by the Tories inappropriately.

• RELATED STORY: Liberal apologizes for saying Harper day-care bucks may buy beer, popcorn

Reid later apologized, but Harper said these kinds of remarks were in fact the "bulk of the Liberal response" to the Conservatives' announcement.

"The apology only withdrew the words," Harper said. "It didn't actually withdraw the point he said he was trying to make."