The Conservative Party caucus met in Toronto Thursday, part of an effort to fight for support in Canada's largest city.

Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper told his supporters, that while Toronto has supported the Liberals for the past 10 years, "the Liberals have not supported Toronto."

Recent polls indicate the Tories continue trail the Liberals in popularity across the country, but are especially hurting in large urban areas like Toronto. With the exception of NDP Leader Jack Layton, the Liberals hold every Toronto seat.

Harper hoped to win over some Torontonians with the announcement of new $400 million plan to offer tax rebates to users of public transit.

He said the plan would reduce pollution by encouraging the use of public transit. Funding reserved for Kyoto climate-change programs would pay for it.

The Tories estimate the plan would save Toronto-area residents who use GO Transit about $485 annually.

Toronto Mayor David Miller was unimpressed, however, and called the plan an old idea.

Harper's public image

Those same polls that show his party is behind indicate Harper needs to work on his public image.

One poll conducted in July found 41 per cent of Canadians felt their opinion of Harper had "gotten worse" in the past few months.

Some analysts attribute Harper's low popularity to his apparent inability to connect with Canadians who would otherwise vote Conservative.

"People who are in the middle, who think that it's time for a change, they're having a very hard time getting a personal feeling for Stephen Harper," the Strategic Counsel's Allan Gregg told CTV News. "There's no sense of who he is and therefore no attraction."

Harper still has the support of his own MPs, along with some senators, who reportedly gave their leader a standing ovation at the caucus meeting.

They will help him in the next few days as he meets potential voters in the city, and pushes local candidates such as former Global Television news anchor Peter Kent, who hopes to defeat Liberal cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett in the mid-Toronto riding of St. Paul's.

Kent has said the media is biased against Conservatives, especially in Toronto.

"In a couple of weeks I'm going to throw down a challenge to journalism schools to monitor the balance in the coverage -- particularly in this city," Peter Kent told reporters outside the caucus meeting.

However, if Tories are unable to win the public relations war with the Liberals, they are certainly beating them in fundraising.

The Tories raised $5 million between April and June, compared to just $1.7 million for the Liberals. The NDP came in last, with just $1.4 million, according to Elections Canada.

Prof. David Dunne, who studies marketing at the University of Toronto, believes that the Conservatives are wise to invest some of that money in this summer's barbeque tour of Canada.

"A lot of marketing these days is less about mass advertising than it is about grassroots types of things -- getting people to talk about issues or products or services. So that's what the strategy is here," he said.

Free speech

Earlier this week, the RCMP investigated an Alberta man who had a bumper sticker with two words: One a popular, four-letter curse word, the other Harper.

Rob Wells received a letter asking him to remove the offending sticker from his vehicle, after another Alberta resident complained.

However, the RCMP decided this would infringe on Wells's right to freedom of expression, and decided not to prosecute.

Meanwhile, Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay has said he will not run for the premiership of Nova Scotia, ending rumours he would take over from Premier John Hamm if a fall election was called.

With a report from CTV's David Akin