Tories target pocketbook perks as election looms + MORE Oct 10th

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On Wednesday, the Conservatives matched the Liberals’ pledge to extend parental leave from 12 to 18 months with a promise to change the employment insurance system. Kathleen Lahey is a professor of tax law at Queen’s University Faculty of Law who has studied how parental leave affects women’s income levels and workforce participation.
Q: Many people will see extending parental leave as a boon to families. Your research suggests it’s more complicated. Could you provide some context?
A: The most important thing for women to realize is putting the focus on women’s employment needs during the early child-raising years is often a serious mistake because women are at their most vulnerable during that period of time. Extending job protection is of course essential, but it will also be important to ensure a smooth and uniform transition at the provincial level, too, lest women face one set of EI rules and another set of provincial employment security rules…

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper speaks during a campaign stop in Saskatoon, Sask, on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. (Nathan Denette/CP)
SASKATOON – Sheri Rudoski was beaming as she left a speech Stephen Harper delivered to parents and wailing babies in Saskatoon on Wednesday.
She wasn’t enthusiastic about a historic, 1,500-page trade deal reached among Pacific Rim nations, which the prime minister touted all week.
Instead, Rudoski was keen on the Conservative pledge to retool the Employment Insurance program and spread benefits by an additional six months.
“It was a really exciting announcement for moms,” said Rudoski as her son Finn wriggled in her arms. “It would affect me personally and it affects my vote.”
It’s been a long-held belief by Conservatives that pocketbook perks play to Harper’s strengths and it’s likely he will use the final campaign stretch to emphasize these issues.
On Saturday, Harper’s finance minister Joe Oliver was in Toronto to do just that, emphasizing the Tory economic vision…