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Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion wants to prohibit assault weapons if he becomes Prime Minister and says Stephen Harper is “soft on crime” because he refuses to do the same.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Leader accused Mr. Dion of being exploitive for making his gun announcement at Dawson College, the scene two years of the tragic shooting in which a young woman was gunned down by 25-year-old Kimveer Gill, who was armed with an assault rifle.

Earlier in the day, the Liberal Leader had accused Mr. Harper of trying to win the election on lies, criticizing him for misrepresenting the Liberal position on various issues.

Such was the first full day of campaigning – a war of words between the two leaders and a surprisingly light day of campaigning for the Liberal Leader, who has been criticized for getting off to a slow start.

Mr. Dion appeared on a radio talk show and visited two ridings – Saint Lambert and Westmount – that were to have had by-elections. Later in the evening, he made a speech to party supporters.

Quebec was once a Liberal stronghold, but only a small group was on hand for his morning appearance in the south shore riding of Saint Lambert. Later in the day, he appeared in the Westmount riding with candidate and former astronaut Marc Garneau.

The two walked together to Dawson College. There was a larger group of about 60 people gathered around to hear his gun-control message.

“We have identified what is our priority and it is the assault weapons that no other purpose than military,” he said. “The one that we need to banish for sure that have no other purpose than the military. For all military, yes, otherwise, no, we don't need these kinds of weapons that have no link at all with hunting or other sports.”

He said that these guns are restricted now but not prohibited. Last week, Quebec coroner Jacques Ramsay released his report into the tragedy, saying that semi-automatic weapons such as that used by the shooter, Kimveer Gill, should be banned.

Even before he made his announcement, Mr. Harper accused his opponent of exploiting a tragedy.

“I think you have to be careful in this business,” Mr. Harper told reporters. “You obviously have to respond to crime and to people's real concerns but I don't think you ever want to be seen as exploiting particular tragedies.”

He defended his party's policies, saying the Tories favour “the registration of restricted weapons.”

“This party has increased screening requirements for the … purchase of all weapons and the fact of the matter is handguns and many weapons are in fact very difficult to own legally in this country.”

Mr. Dion dismissed the criticism, saying that “it's perfectly appropriate” in order to avoid a similar event.

“Mr. Gill had his gun within the law and he used it the way you know. So we need to have stronger gun control in Canada …”

However, the director general of Dawson College, Richard Filion was critical of the Harper Tories on their gun control policies.

“They haven't done nothing. They came here … [Public Safety Minister] Stockwell Day came two years ago. As far as I know there was no action taken since … so we'll see in the future, we'll see how this question will evolve.”

Mr. Filion said that public debate on this issue should be raised during an election campaign.