Stephen Harper pledged that a Conservative government would recognize Quebec's provincial autonomy and give it a more prominent voice on the world stage.

Campaigning in Quebec City on Monday morning, Harper said as prime minister he will allow Quebec to play a role in international bodies such as UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

That statement echoed a promise Liberal Leader Paul Martin made before the 2004 campaign, when he said provinces should have a greater international say in areas of their jurisdiction.

Quebec has long demanded a more direct role in negotiations on the international stage in areas that affect provincial jurisdiction, such as culture and language.

Harper accused the Liberals of damaging the federalist cause with the sponsorship scandal, and added the Conservative Party can make repairs.

"Millions of Quebecers are looking for an alternative to corruption and separation that only a new Conservative government can provide," he said.

Speaking to reporters in Ayr, Ont., Prime Minister Paul Martin said: "Let me be clear: My position is we are one country, and you don't strengthen Canada by weakening the federal government."

Canada is one country that speaks with one voice internationally, "not two and not ten," he said.

As to his 2004 statement, Martin said he meant more consultation with the provinces, and not giving them a voice equal to the federal government's.

Fiscal imbalance

Harper also said the Tories would work to ease the so-called fiscal imbalance between Ottawa and other levels of government, but he did not offer specific steps to do so.

"My commitment is to hold discussions with provinces immediately and, naturally, to look for a consensus," Harper told reporters in French following his announcement.

He said fiscal imbalance is a "big problem" that the Liberal government refused to recognize.

"We have to face the fact that Ottawa is rolling in tens of billions of dollars in surpluses. ... At the same time, provinces and municipalities are having trouble meeting essential and core services without going into debt."

Harper accused Martin of avoiding the issue during last week's English debate in Vancouver.

Martin responded by saying that Ottawa used its surpluses to pay down the national debt, and that he inked a deal with provinces to send them $41 billion in health care money and even more in equalization payments.

While Martin boasted that Quebec this year and next will get $3.7 billion more in transfer payments than it received before, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said that still doesn't address the imbalance that the Liberal government "created." He castigated the Liberals for underestimating the surpluses they've racked up at the end of the fiscal cycle.

"One year they said it was $1.9 billion. Actually it was $9.1 billion. I call that financial dyslexia," said Duceppe.

Earlier this month, Duceppe attacked Harper's GST reduction plan, saying that such a plan fails to recognize the fiscal imbalance and would ultimately lead to hurting revenues in Quebec.

While Duceppe has been arguing for provinces to receive more taxation powers, he has also stated that if Quebec had all the powers of a sovereign country, it wouldn't need equalization payments.

NDP Leader Jack Layton, meanwhile, said during the debate that fiscal inequality has been the source of problems with Canada's provinces and cities, and said surpluses should be geared towards funding social programs.

Quebec strategy

While Harper's Quebec plank seems to be an effort to paint his party as a legitimate federalist option to the Liberals, the Tories are in an uphill battle to gain any seats in the province in this campaign.

But CTV's David Akin, who had been travelling with the Harper campaign, said the Tory Leader's announcement in Quebec is aimed more at Ontario voters than at Quebecers.

"Ontario voters want a guy that they think is credible in Quebec. So Harper is in Quebec to show Ontario voters he's credible there, and that may help him win votes in Ontario."

Meanwhile, polls show Martin's Liberals are trailing the Bloc badly in the Quebec.

A recent poll by The Strategic Counsel (conducted between Dec. 15 and 18) showed Liberal support in Quebec at 23 points, down two points from a previous poll.

Bloc support, meanwhile, has gone up a point to 55.

In addition, the Bloc are almost twice as popular in Montreal as the Liberals. Montreal anglophone neighborhoods have traditionally been Liberal strongholds.

Timothy Woolstencroft, managing partner of the Strategic Counsel, said last week's French debate did little to improve Liberal fortunes in the Quebec.

"Clearly they're going to have to hope for a big Christmas present on Christmas day to change their fortunes in that province," said Woolstencroft Monday on CTV Newsnet.

The Grits currently hold 21 of the province's seats, compared to 54 for the Bloc.

Martin said that while the Liberals' main rival in most of Canada is the Tory party, in Quebec, it is the Bloc.

The federal party leaders are all back in Eastern Canada after a western swing over the weekend following their first set of debates.

Martin is in the southwestern corner of Ontario today, while his Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan was in Edmonton to release the Liberal party's federal election platform for Alberta.

Layton spoke this morning at an Ottawa seniors centre, saying his party is committed to helping seniors and families with investments in home care and long-term care.

The leaders are expected to take a holiday break between Christmas and New Year's Day before turning up the heat for the final three weeks of the campaign for the Jan. 23 election.