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Stephen Harper made a pitch to Quebec's suburban voters to trust his Conservatives as a safe choice to manage an uncertain economy, portraying opponents Stéphane Dion and Gilles Duceppe as obsessed with the unity battles of the past.

The Prime Minister made no mention of the in-and-out election-finance scandal that is buffeting his party - and raising the hopes of the Bloc Québécois, who believe the issue will turn off voters who recoiled at the Liberals' sponsorship scandal in the last election.

Instead, Mr. Harper stuck to money matters, arguing that his government has made fiscal issues a priority and resisted the opposition's profligate demands that Ottawa intervene with billions of dollars in the face of a slowing economy.

In a speech to a business audience in Laval, in the suburban belt north of Montreal where the Conservatives hope to make electoral gains, he acknowledged that Canada's economy will be hit, but argued that his government has followed a steady approach that will protect Quebeckers' pocketbooks.

"More than anything else, we are focusing our efforts on economic priorities. Unlike our adversaries, we do not want to reanimate the old disputes between separatists and centralizers. Mr. Duceppe, Mr. Dion are the great defenders of these positions. But it is not our fight."

Mr. Harper's message came as federal parties attempt to position themselves as fears of a recession in Canada grow, fuelled by a spreading credit crisis and a U.S. downturn.

But his return to the Laval banquet hall where he delivered his first Quebec speech as Conservative Leader four years ago was also intended to be a measure of how far his party's fortunes have changed in the province.

Mr. Harper, then viewed in Quebec as a little-known and untested politician, returned, after two years in office and three federal budgets, arguing that his government had brought balanced, moderate, safe management to the economy.

Polls showed Paul Martin's Liberals were considered the better economic managers then; the Tories have that edge now. Last night, as the Montreal Canadiens played the first game of the second-round playoff series, Mr. Harper attended a party event that drew more than 1,000 people. He ended his speech by talking about the game and hockey, one of his passions, and left the crowd, saying "Go, Habs, go."

Mr. Harper hopes his economic-manager message will prove a vote-winner if there is an election this year, especially in the small towns and bedroom communities of Quebec, where the Conservatives have focused their aspirations for gains in seats.

"Canada is not an island, and our trade-intensive economy is expected to grow more slowly over the next two years. As we said last fall, the economic slowdown in the United States, the more difficult credit markets, the global financial volatility, the fall of the American dollar, represent sizable challenges for us," he told the Laval Chamber of Commerce and Industry earlier in the day.

"There are many ways to meet these challenges. One consists of throwing money everywhere without even counting it - as the opposition parties demanded before the 2008 budget - and as they will continue to do, implying that every problem requires an immediate response in the form of a short-term intervention or costly subsidy.

"That's not what we called for in the budget and it's not what we will do."

Mr. Harper argued that the Conservative economic policy has been to lower taxes when affordable, including corporate taxes, keep spending under control and avoid deficits. The government has supported such specific sectors as forestry, auto and aerospace industries, he noted.

Opposition parties, however, have insisted that the government has done too little to help Canada's ailing manufacturing sector, relying instead on the oil boom to keep the national economy out of recession.

"Canada's economic situation is largely due to the oil resource," said Bloc MP Serge Ménard. "When it comes to the oil industry, they don't think long-term, they think of making the most profit now and they still give them tax advantages they would not give the manufacturing industry."

With a report from Gloria Galloway