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Conservatives, Liberals continue their bickering over the lot of the middle class

So far, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has been — let's say guarded — with regard to sharing his platform for the 2015 election campaign.

One thing he has talked about is being a champion for the middle class who, Trudeau says, are mightily struggling in Canada.

That stance, however, has given both the Conservatives and New Democrats some easy attack lines.

The Conservatives have chided Trudeau for not being able to define what 'middle class' is while NDP leader Thomas Mulcair recently suggested that the Liberal leader doesn't " know what middle class means" because he's never been there.

Well, now there's a third line of attack thanks to a New York Times report that claims that Canada's middle class is doing relatively well under the Harper government.

"After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans," notes the report, released on Tuesday.

"Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several — including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden — is much smaller than it was a decade ago."

[ Related: Canada’s middle class has little to cheer about ]

Like clockwork, the Tories attacked.

Yahoo Canada News asked Trudeau's office for a rebuttal. They directed us to a blog post, published on the Liberal website, written by deputy leader Ralph Goodale.

Here's an excerpt from that post.

"In reality, the issue for Canadians is not whether we are doing better or worse than the US. It’s how well (or poorly) we are doing in absolute terms. Compared to a few years ago, are we making enough progress? Is the Canadian middle class substantially better off?

"The hard arithmetic is not encouraging. According to Statistics Canada data — accumulated before that agency was mangled by the Harper government’s war on facts and evidence — median after-tax family incomes in Canada in 1980 were $59,600. By 2011, they had risen to $68,000. That’s a gain of just 14% — 14% spread over 30 years!

"Mr. Harper and Jason Kenney say that’s good enough for them. They proclaim the Canadian middle class is doing very well, any alleged angst is a myth and those who call for a better performance are just a bunch of whiners. Really? Is income growth of LESS THAN HALF A PERCENTAGE POINT PER YEAR good enough for you?"

One of Canada's most respected economists seems to agree with Goodale.

"[The U.S.] went through the mother of all recessions," CIBC's Benjamin Tal told CBC News.

"We’re doing OK, but we should not relax about it."

[ More Canadian Politics: Federal Conservatives vault to the top in new opinion poll ]

Meanwhile, the Tories also fell victim to an international study which disputes what they've been saying.

One of the Tories' go-to lines has been that their job creation record, since the recession, is among the best of the G-7.

But, according a new OECD study reported on by the Canadian Press, that might not be the case.

"According to 34-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada would place fifth during the recovery period according to the percentage of the working age population that held a job at the end of 2013, compared to the situation prior to the 2008-09 recession," the CP story notes.

"Economists view the employment rate as a good barometer of overall strength in labour markets because it reflects the portion of people in any given population that has jobs."

How does that old saying go? 'Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

That seems to apply here.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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