Portraying himself as a man who has proven his economic credentials during his tenure as finance minister then as prime minister, Martin said Harper is taking for granted the hard work that was required to eliminate the federal budget deficit.
"The whole story brings me back to 1993-94, when I first began to work on the nation's finances," said Martin. "Things were pretty bad at that time."
Harper's plan would mean higher taxes for low and middle-income earners and fewer services for Canadians, Martin said.
Paul Martin
"During this election, Stephen Harper has made 196 promises to the Canadian people," Martin said. "But in his platform, his party comes up at least $22 billion short on how they are going to pay for them."
Martin said making promises is easier than deciding which programs to cut.
"It's easy to make 196 promises, but it's much harder to make a choice – to choose between one program and another, one service or another."
"I've been around the table when those decisions had to be made," he said. "You can't sort of say, 'Well, we'll fudge it.' "
The Liberals have attacked the costing of the Conservative platform, and gained some new ammunition on Sunday when Paul Darby, the Conference Board of Canada economist who endorsed the platform in December, said two major planks were not in the version he reviewed.
Later on Sunday, the Conservatives released a statement saying that Darby had reaffirmed his analysis of the plan.
Martin is spending two days in the B.C. Lower Mainland trying to shore up soft Liberal support in the region and to hang on to the few seats they have there.
The importance placed on this region by the party is apparent, since Martin's team is spending two full days in the Lower Mainland during the final week of the campaign.
He said the province has benefited from the strong economy, and from having B.C. members in senior cabinet posts, such as Industry Minister David Emerson and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh.
Martin joked about a national debt clock the board of trade used to have, and at one time regularly made him speak in front of it. They said the clock was in storage.
But while the Liberal leader wanted to talk about the economy, Dan Muzyka, the chair of the board of trade, blasted the Liberal record on crime.
Quoting Statistics Canada, Muzyka said Canada had a higher violent crime rate than the United States, and asked Martin what his government would do about it.
