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Canada's Finance Minister Joe Oliver, center, shakes hands with Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, right. With a federal election call looming, Ontario is demanding the Conservative government drop its opposition to the creation of a provincial pension plan.Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press

The Ontario Liberals are charging into the federal election campaign, calling for voters to throw Stephen Harper out of office and replace him with a prime minister who will help implement the province's new pension plan.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa on Thursday called a news conference to open fire on his federal counterpart, Joe Oliver, for refusing to assist in the operation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).

"People should vote for a federal government that is going to co-operate with the provinces," Mr. Sousa declared. "What they're doing is unprecedented."

Asked whether this meant he wanted the Conservatives to get the boot, he said: "Absolutely. What we find here is a government that is obstructing the needs of the people of this province."

Ontario wants the Canada Revenue Agency to collect contributions to the pension plan from companies and workers on behalf of the province. But Mr. Oliver declared two weeks ago he will not let that happen, meaning Ontario will have to set up its own system for collecting the money and potentially swallow more administrative costs.

The ORPP, which starts in 2017, will be mandatory for companies and workers who do not already have a comparable workplace pension plan. It is expected to roughly double the benefits provided by the Canada Pension Plan, but very few of the details have been worked out.

The federal election is scheduled for Oct. 19 and the writ period could begin as soon as this weekend. The unofficial campaign, however, is already under way: Mr. Harper's Tories have launched attack ads targeted at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, while NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is touring Ontario this week promoting his platform.

Mr. Trudeau campaigned for the Ontario Liberals ahead of the provincial election last year; now they are returning the favour by taking shots at the Prime Minister.

Among Mr. Sousa's digs Thursday were repeated references to the generous public pension Mr. Harper will receive as an MP, even as his government opposes bigger pensions for Ontarians.

"What he's telling you is, 'Fend for yourself.' But not him. He's going to have a gold-plated pension plan that's going to provide tremendous benefit for future years for himself," Mr. Sousa said. "He's slapping the face of Ontarians."

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has calculated that if Mr. Harper were to retire next year, he would receive $180,476 in annual benefits. In 2012, Mr. Harper passed legislation cutting MPs' pensions, including special provisions to specifically reduce his own.

Mr. Sousa also pointed to other provincial pension plans – in Quebec and Saskatchewan – that the federal government helps administer, arguing it is unfair for Ottawa to assist those provinces but not Ontario.

Federal Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre argued that the ORPP will cause companies to lay off people or slash their salaries to afford the extra contributions to their employees' retirements.

"The Kathleen Wynne Liberals have requested that the federal government assist in the implementation of this massive payroll tax hike. The Harper Conservatives have rejected that request," Mr. Poilievre said in a statement on Thursday.

He also took aim at Mr. Trudeau for suggesting that he would expand the Canada Pension Plan, calling it a "dangerous scheme to take money from workers and their families, kill jobs and damage the economy."

"Middle-class families in Ontario cannot afford the massive new payroll tax hike being proposed by Justin Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne. We are committed to doing everything possible to stop the massive Trudeau-Wynne payroll tax hike on middle-class families," he said. "The Harper Conservatives believe in giving Canadians the options to choose how they save and spend their hard-earned money."

Mitzie Hunter, provincial associate minister of finance in charge of pensions, argued that, on the contrary, larger pensions will help Ontario's economy by giving future retirees more money to spend.

"If people retire without adequate income, that has the potential to slow consumption. If consumption slows, that could potentially harm Ontario's economy," she said.

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