As the price of gas rose sharply Friday, party leaders on the election trail weighed in on how they would keep prices down at the pump.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was asked Friday if consumers are being gouged at the pumps and replied, "Well, it certainly feels like that to me."
Harper said his party would be making some announcements about how they intend to deal with the issue later in the election campaign.
"In the meantime, we have a record of lowering prices for consumers, our opponents have opposed those measures and the affect of the policies of our opponents -- including the NDP -- would be to raise these prices for consumers," he said.
But NDP Leader Jack Layton wasn't waiting and promised to strengthen the government monitoring of fuel prices to avoid price gouging.
Layton made the pledge as part of a wider campaign announcement targeting the "unacceptable and outrageous" practices of many banks, oil companies, telecom and credit-card firms.
"Every day, Canadians are paying millions of dollars due to price-gouging and hidden fees of all kinds," Layton said during a stop in St. John's, N.L.
"If Stephen Harper is not willing to stand up to the big oil companies you can count on me to do so as your prime minister."
Harper said Friday that "we do have to understand is that energy prices are high and they're not likely to go down," which was seized on by Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.
Dion was touting his 'Green Shift' carbon tax plan in British Columbia, which already has an unpopular carbon tax.
"Mr. Harper himself today admitted that the price of oil and gas will continue to grow . . . so, what is his strategy for Canada?" Dion asked. "What is his strategy to help out families to cope with this problems today and tomorrow?'
"But the main reason why the price of oil is set to go up... is because humanity is asking for more and more oil, you have a demand that is booming much faster than the supply," said Dion.
"The countries that give to themselves the possibilities to be more energy efficient, to develop new sources of renewable energy, are the winning countries of the 21st century."
Harper said his government has acted to help ease the pressure on consumers with measures such as the GST cut.
Meanwhile, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe didn't blame price gouging but instead accused Harper Friday of helping big oil. He also said Canada has to reduce its dependency on oil.
In some parts of Canada, the price of gas shot up by about 13 cents after midnight to more than $1.36 a litre.
