Canadian Prime Minister Mr Paul Martin accused Conservative leader Mr Stephen Harper of being a clone of the US extreme right on Saturday, but polls showed Harper on track to defeat him in Monday's election.
Mr Martin started the election campaign at the end of November with a comfortable lead but polls now predict Mr Harper will end 12 years of Liberal rule.
Mr Harper said it was important to turn the page on scandals that took place under the Liberal government and to deal with problems affecting ordinary Canadians, but Mr Martin said Mr Harper's vision was antithetical to Canadian social values.
"We have a party (Conservatives) that basically draws its influences from the farthest right of the US conservative movement," Mr Martin, 67, told a rally in the Toronto suburb of Brampton.
"Let me tell you, Stephen Harper -- we have our own values in Canada," added Mr Martin, who has said Harper would let the White House set Canadian policy on issues like the missile defence shield and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
He has accused Mr Harper of planning to curb abortion rights, although the Conservative has pledged not to do so, and has criticised Harper's plan to try to repeal the law allowing gay marriage.
An increasingly confident Mr Harper -- who has promised a sales tax cut, improved health care, cleaner government and a crackdown on crime -- said the prime minister was committing an error in spending so much time on divisive social topics.
"I think Mr. Martin is making a mistake talking about issues no one wants to talks about ... and instead not telling people why they should vote for his party," Mr Harper, 46, told reporters in an informal chat on their bus.