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MIRABEL, Que. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dismissing Liberal claims he's given up on Quebec with his infrequent appearances in the province.
Harper made his first public foray into Quebec in more than three months on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Office blamed it on his busy schedule.
Harper held a news conference north of Montreal to announce a new maintenance contract for the country's CF-18 fighter jets.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was quick to point out it was the prime minister's first official trip to Quebec in 110 days.
"Obviously, I regularly travel everywhere in Canada," Harper said in Mirabel when asked about accusations he's abandoned Quebec.
"I am here today with an important announcement and I will return with more announcements this month."
Ignatieff, speaking at a Liberal caucus retreat in Baddeck, N.S., accused Harper of being disconnected from issues that matter most to Quebec, like health care and the high cost of post-secondary education.
"Quebecers are going to remember that," he said of Harper's absence from the public eye in Quebec.
"It's as if he put a cross on Quebec and crossed it off his list. Now he's come back and what's he doing?"
Ignatieff went on to criticize Harper for focusing instead on refitting old airplanes and buying new ones.
"He's not responding to the social and economic anxieties of Quebecers about their jobs, about their retirement, about their security," the Liberal leader said.
Vote-rich Quebec is a key battleground for the Conservatives' drive to win a majority government one day.
The Tories won 10 out of 75 seats in the province in the 2008 general election, while the Liberals won 14 ridings and the Bloc Quebecois captured 50. There was also one Independent.
But a recent poll suggested that Harper continued to have a tough time winning over Quebec's federalist voters. It indicated his party was running a distant third behind the Bloc and the Liberals in the province.
Late Wednesday, during an outdoor rally in a multi-ethnic Montreal suburb, Harper warned that the Liberals, the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois could force an election.
"The population doesn't want an election, we don't want an election," Harper told supporters who packed a lawn outside a local school in sweltering heat.
"But one day, and that's the tough reality of a minority government, there will be elections and they could be called by the opposition coalition at any time," he said.
Harper said Canadians would face two clear choices: a coalition government "during a full world recession" or "a stable, majority Conservative government."
He said the party would be recruiting good candidates in all regions of Quebec, adding that riding associations will have the necessary funds to fight right to the end of a campaign.
A PMO spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Harper's last public appearance in Quebec was May 14 in the Saguenay region.
He said Harper's agenda has been packed with engagements like the G-8 and G-20 summits, as well as the Queen's visit and his recent tour of Northern Canada.
The spokesman noted that Harper also took some time off during the summer and that much of it was spent in Quebec.
(With files from Joan Bryden in Baddeck, N.S. and Peter Rakobowchuk in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec)
