Canada drifting under PM Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau says in Edmonton speech

EDMONTON—Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau told party faithful in Edmonton that Canada is drifting under the mediocre leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Trudeau, in a speech Thursday to 300 people, said Canadians are among the luckiest people in the world, but risk squandering their success under Harper.

He says Harper is more concerned with half measures of success, and with turning representative democracy on its head.

Trudeau says the current federal government has MPs no longer representing their constituencies to Harper, but rather representing Harper to their constituencies.

He says Harper’s tactics of targeting and demonizing opponents leaves him little room to govern with any moral authority.

Trudeau has been stumping through Alberta in recent days, trying to drum up support for a party that has traditionally found little traction in Harper’s home province.