“I think we are in a very bad place when you’ve got a Prime Minister who does a background check on his audience at a democratic crowd and doesn’t seem to do a background check on the people he hires in the Prime Minister’s Office, like [former PMO aide Bruce] Carson,” Mr. Ignatieff said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton also contrasted the closed access provided to Mr. Harper with his own style of campaigning.
"We encourage people to come out to our events so we can find out what's on their mind and so we can share any concerns that they have," Mr. Layton said during a campaign stop in Winnipeg on Tuesday. "I think that with Mr. Harper we see such a closed approach, such a controlling approach."
The NDP Leader said Canadians deserve access to their prime minister in the same way that parliamentarians deserve access to information about government legislation.
And he took a similar shot to Mr. Ignatieff on Mr. Harper's relationaship with Mr. Carson, who arrived at the Prime Minister's Office wwith a string of fraud convictions and is now being investigated for alleged influence peddling.
"It's certainly quite a dichotomy that someone with a Facebook picture that bothers the Conservatives isn't allowed close to the Prime Minister but someone who is a convicted fraudster who is trying to profiteer on the backs of first nations who desperately need clean water, this kind of person is allowed to have the closest access," said Mr. Layton. "I think it says something about Stephen Harper and his administration and it isn't pretty."
In the late afternoon on Wednesday, the New Democrats said Ms. Aslam is a supporter of their party and circulated picture of her attending Mr. Layton’s rally in London on Monday.
“She thought she would go to some of the other rallies as well, and I think that’s admirable,” Mr. Layton told about 300 supporters at a hall in Winnipeg.
“Well she got turned down flat by Stephen Harper’s team when she wanted to walk into that meeting. What does that say to young people who are trying to get involved in politics? It says, as far as the Stephen Harper Conservatives are concerned, if you’re not marching in lock step with us, the door is slammed shut in your face.”
With reports from Jane Taber and Gloria Galloway
