The Tories won't be "boy scouts" as they fight back against Liberal attacks in what the party expects to be a nasty federal campaign, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said Friday.

"It's bound to be a nasty campaign," Harper said during a visit to Toronto to outline the Tory proposal for a new tax break for retirement income. "They're bound to turn negative, bound to attack us, that's the history of the Liberal party ... but we're going to run a tough campaign too, I'm not going to kid you, we're not going to be boy scouts this time."

Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to call an election May 23 for a June 28 vote.

The Liberal party is expected to strike first with a series of attack-style TV ads early next week aimed at demonizing Harper. The ads will feature Harper's own words on sticky issues such as immigration.

"I'm not sure that Canadians want to see these types of U.S. attack-style ads," Harper said.

"But, look, I've never been one to back down from a fight."

"We'll fight in a way that shows we're fighting for the concerns of ordinary Canadians, not fight in a way that shows we're just dirty politicians."

The Liberals will try to brand Harper as a right-wing extremist who is unappealing to voters outside his Western base.

Harper also tried to quash criticism Friday that his party is suffering from a "gender gap," a perception the party is run by "knuckle-dragging" Neanderthals resulting in weak support from women and minorities.

"Just to quote that longtime Toronto Star columnist Dalton Camp, who long ago said that I was the Alliance member least likely to drag his knuckles," Harper quipped, after an address at the C.D. Howe Institute. Camp, who also worked as a Tory strategist, died in 2002.

"On another occasion ... he said that I was the 'thinking man's redneck' -- which I'm so proud of, I promised my wife I'm going to have that on my tombstone."

"Let's have some realistic fears," he added. "Women's voting rights aren't going to be stripped away or whatever the allegations are."