ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Premier Danny Williams says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is willing to stoop to any depths to get a majority government.
The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador unleashed one of his strongest attacks yet on Harper's government, saying reports of a Conservative offer of an insurance policy to a dying MP for his vote against the Liberal government of former prime minister Paul Martin shows what the Tories will do for a majority in the Oct. 14 federal election campaign.
"This ... is a party who purportedly offered a terminally ill MP a life insurance policy to get his vote," he said in a speech on Wednesday to a business group.
"How low can you go?"
Williams also described a Conservative Internet ad showing a puffin defecacting on Liberal Leader Stephane Dion as a "nasty, disgusting personal attack ad."
Williams said Harper has a hidden agenda that was thwarted by having to work within the confines of a minority government.
"A majority government for Stephen Harper would be one of the most negative political events in Canadian history," he added.
Williams attacked Harper's integrity, accusing him of breaking his word to the province on an equalization agreement over offshore oil resources.
Williams has promised to campaign against Harper in a campaign he calls ABC, vote Anything But Conservative.
"If you believe that the country deserves better, then you know what to do. It's as easy as ABC," he said.
The two political leaders have been locked in a political feud since the 2007 federal budget clawed back equalization payments from royalties on oil resources.
Williams, a Progressive Conservative, said voters in the province should send the federal Tories a message by voting against Harper's government.
"It is so critically important that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador let Stephen Harper know that he treatment, his attitude, his indifference to this province is not acceptable," he said.
Williams said Harper once told him during a private meeting that the Conservatives did not need the voters of Newfoundland and Labrador to win an election.
"So let's let him know that we don't need him either."
Quoting from the Conservative campaign literature used in 2006, Williams said Harper had intoned: "There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept."
The premier said Harper used those words to woo Newfoundland voters.
"Naively, we trusted him. He rewarded that trust with a broken promise. According to his own brochure, Stephen Harper is a fraud."
