OSHAWA, Ont. - Jack Layton now says he's willing to debate Green Leader Elizabeth May, after being pilloried on the Internet and elsewhere for his earlier effort to exclude her from the televised leaders' debates.

The New Democratic Party leader says the issue has "become a distraction" and he does not want to continue "debating about the debate."

Layton says as long as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on stage for the debates on Oct. 1 and 2, he doesn't care who else is there as well.

Layton's change of heart prompted the same move from Harper, who was widely assumed to have threatened to boycott the debates if May was included.

A Tory spokesman says the Conservatives are also abandoning their boycott of the debate, although they remain opposed to letting May participate.

Kory Teneycke says the Tories continue to believe May is essentially a Liberal candidate and should not be included in the televised debates.

"Our point of principle doesn't change but . . . we would not boycott the debate," Teneycke said.

"We don't think she should be there. But if the NDP have decided they're changing their position, we will not stand alone."

Layton's about-face came after he announced a New Democrat government would spend $8.2 billion over four years to foster "green-collar" manufacturing jobs and keep work from migrating beyond Canada's borders.

In order to pay for it, the NDP would reverse over $20 billion in corporate tax breaks introduced since 2005 by both the Tories and the Liberals.

The NDP leader made the announcement outside General Motors headquarters in a blue-collar city long considered the cradle of Canada's hard-hit auto sector.

Four Green party supporters crashed the tail end of Layton's event Wednesday, chanting and waving placards that read "Let Elizabeth Speak" as the NDP leader gladhanded his way through a crowd of autoworkers and supporters.

They call themselves the New Democratic Party and yet they're ignoring the wishes of a majority of Canadians?" said Cavan Gostlin, who sported an NDP sign with the "D" crossed out.

"How democratic is that?"

Layton did his best to keep the event on message, laying the difficulties faced by workers in Oshawa and elsewhere in Ontario's embattled manufacturing sector squarely at the feet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Here at the GM truck plant, 1,000 jobs disappeared last January, and now another 1,000 are slated to go," Layton said, accusing Harper of doing little to stanch the bleeding.

"Is that what he calls standing up for you? I think I call it walking away from you and your family, and leaving you to deal with the consequences."

The money would include $4 billion over four years to help the auto industry design and produce environmentally friendly cars and trucks, Layton said.

Another $3 billion would go towards retraining workers for so-called "green-collar" jobs in the environmental industry.

Layton said the NDP would also spend $400 million on a job protection commissioner charged with investigating major layoffs and plant shutdowns to prevent jobs from leaving Canada.

He described the spending plan as a "prudent, responsible, step-by-step" strategy that would create 40,000 new manufacturing jobs as well as "thousands" more spin-off jobs.

Another $840 million would go towards research and development tax credits.