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Stephane Dion is portraying Jack Layton as a far-left socialist as some polls show the NDP leader is on the verge of overtaking Mr. Dion's Liberals.

In a speech to supporters on Prince Edward Island, Mr. Dion said the NDP leader is a far cry from leaders like Tony Blair who moved their socialist parties to the moderate middle.

“He has a plan, Jack Layton, but his plan is a plan to kill jobs; to raise taxes on our businesses [by] $50 billion. This is what the stock market needs?” he said.

“You have the old conservative approach with [Stephen] Harper, the old socialist approach with Layton and the strong central approach that we Liberals have always delivered to Canada and will deliver again.”

The comment was just one of several swipes that Mr. Dion took at the NDP.

“If you're worried about your savings, your pension, your mortgages; if you're worried about your jobs, then think twice about voting for Jack Layton,” said Mr. Dion. “Because right now, the only job a vote for the NDP will save is Stephen Harper's job.”

He also claimed that Mr. Layton “has no team” and that the Liberals do.

Mr. Dion's attacks on the NDP came the same day as Mr. Layton made a direct appeal for Liberal supporters to unite behind the NDP banner to defeat Conservatives.

Earlier Saturday at a campaign stop in Moncton, N.B., Mr. Dion promised “massive tax cuts” for Canadians via his environmental plan, rejecting Conservative warnings that Liberals are proposing a risky experiment in a time of economic concern.

Mr. Dion went on at length to explain his plan to tax carbon emissions and lower taxes.

The speech contrasted with the one he delivered a day earlier in Montreal, where the Green Shift appeared to take a back seat to his more recent “30-day” plan to boost economic growth in the first days of a Liberal government.

“We'll have massive tax cuts. Don't believe the Conservatives,” said Mr. Dion. “We are not taxing at the pump. I said that to Stephen Harper: Stop to lie to the Canadian people.”

The Liberal leader urged people to use the calculator at a Liberal website to find out the size of their tax cut.

Mr. Dion argued that because 80 per cent of Canada's exports are sold to the United States, the downturn south of the border will definitely have an impact here.

“If we don't prepare ourselves, it's foolish,” he said. “We don't need a government that has a ‘laissez-faire, I don't care, approach.' We don't need a government that is saying ‘Don't worry, be happy.' Stephen Harper: Doing nothing is not an option.”

His two Atlantic Canada speeches were peppered with shots at Mr. Harper over past comments – some now several years old – critical of regional development programs, official bilingualism and a “culture of defeat” in Atlantic Canada.

Following his speech, Mr. Dion was asked by several reporters why his recent stops have been to Liberal ridings – some that were won in 2006 by large margins. Mr. Dion rejected the suggestion that his party is now merely trying to save its current seats in the final days of the campaign.