* Stephen Harper cites Linda McQuaig oilsands comments to criticize NDP

The NDP would wreck Canada’s economy and should never get into power, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said Sunday.

Harper, who was announcing new security-related measures in Ottawa, told reporters he wanted to address something that had come up over the weekend and that he thought was “pretty important and shouldn’t be ignored.”

A “star” NDP candidate, someone NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair had pledged would be part of his cabinet, said that the way to deal with the crisis in the oil industry is to leave the oil in the ground, Harper asserted.

Toronto Centre candidate Linda McQuaig told CBC’s “Power & Politics” on Friday that the oilsands may have to be left “in the ground” in order to reach new climate change goals for reduction of emissions.

“That is the NDP’s not-so-hidden agenda on development,” Harper said. “This is a party that has opposed every single one of these projects. This is a party where the leader actually went out of the country to lobby against Canadian projects.”

Two years ago, Mulcair went to Washington, D.C., where he met with senior Democrats including Nancy Pelosi. After meeting with Mulcair, Pelosi said “Canadians don’t want the pipeline in their own country.”

The Conservative leader also accused the NDP of allying itself with groups in Quebec and in Northern Ontario that are trying to shut down the forest industry.

“The NDP is consistently against the development of our resources and our economy. That is why they have been a disaster wherever they have been in government and why they would wreck this economy if they ever got in, and why they must never get into power in this country,” Harper said.

To stress the point, he repeated it in French. “That is why we should stop at all costs an NDP government in this country.”