SAGUENAY, Que. — Prime Minister Stephen Harper ventured into Quebec's one-time separatist heartland Wednesday, intent on wooing crucial votes and deflecting flak from nearly $45 million in spending cutd for arts and culture.

His pitch was a familiar one -- an assurance that Conservative votes will translate into actual political muscle in Ottawa, not the eternal opposition of a Bloc Quebecois that he says has long outlived its relevance.

At its founding the Bloc was supposed to achieve sovereignty in four years, Harper noted. That was 18 years ago, and Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe has now hit the campaign trail five times -- tying the record of former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"In this election, I'm like a little baby compared to Mr. Duceppe,"' Harper told a partisan crowd in the swing riding of Chicoutimi--Le Fjord where the Tories hope to unseat the Bloc.

Harper won applause from the crowd of about 200 people when he cited the Conservative record of recognizing Quebecers as a nation within a united Canada and reducing federal incursions on provincial turf.

"'Our party will always have a big place for Quebec nationalists because Quebec nationalists have made a big place for Conservatives," he said.

It remains to be seen how well the message is selling in the relatively conservative region where voters have increasingly shown a yen for a voting alternative.

In cosmopolitan Montreal, Harper has been the target of angry protests by hundreds of singers, dancers, actors and writers in the province that holds the key to his long-sought majority government.

He has been accused of censorship, and one speaker at a rally last month went so far as to compare him to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

But that's Montreal -- still an island of Liberal support as the Conservatives wage a knock-down fight with the Bloc for much of the rest of the province.

The Tories shocked many by electing 10 Quebec MPs in 2006 and placing second in another 42 of the province's 75 seats.

Building on those gains is vital if Harper is to win a majority on Oct. 14.

In an apparent bid to ease any ill feeling over funding cuts to arts and culture, Harper offered Wednesday to ensure the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission "'reflects and respects Canada's linguistic reality."

That means the top job at the federal broadcast regulator would alternate between English and French speakers and that the number of CRTC commissioners would reflect the percentage of Canada's francophone population.

The Conservatives acknowledge that the regulator already meets or exceeds such representation. But they say the new minimum standards will ensure it stays that way.