OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is seeking to allay concerns about what he would do with a majority, pledging Monday he has no secret agenda to ban abortions or same-sex marriage.

The spectre of a secret agenda arose in the campaign after a poll showed the Conservatives opening up a 14-point lead over the Liberals and as the prime minister called for the abolition of the long-gun registry.

The polls don't all put Harper within touch of a majority. A Canadian Press-Harris Decima survey released later in the afternoon suggested the gap was a mere seven points, with the Conservatives leading the Liberals 35 per cent to 28 per cent. That is almost identical to the vote results in the last election.

But the campaign tactics adopted by the Tories suggest their brain trust believes a majority is attainable this time, after two failed tries.

As he did throughout most of the first week, Harper found himself in enemy territory on Monday, this time trying to pick off Malcolm Allen's NDP seat in the Ontario riding of Welland.

Allen is believed vulnerable as one of six New Democrats who initially backed a Tory private-member's bill to kill the gun registry, then switched sides. The bill was rejected by the slimmest of margins and Harper made it clear the next vote will be on a government measure if he wins a majority.

"Abolishing the long-gun registry is a position of the Conservative Party held by every single member of the caucus," he said.

Asked by a reporter if that meant he might revive other issues that are hot buttons for many in his party, including abortion rights and same-sex marriage, Harper said he has no intention of doing so.

He said he would govern with a majority the same way he would with a minority.

"We will govern on the platform we are elected on," he said.

"On the other matters you mention (abortion and gay marriage), they are not in the Conservative platform. I have no intention of opening up those issues."

Harper was not asked and did not say whether he would support a private-member's bill on the issues.

In December, the prime minister voted against a private-members bill that would have criminalized coercing a woman into having an abortion.

The suspicion the Conservatives harbour a secret agenda they would spring on the country if they got the chance has plagued Harper in the past, particularly on social issues.

Opposition MPs have often referred to the perceived horrors that would result if, instead of being held in check in the House of Commons, Tories formed a clear majority capable of pushing through anything they want.

Trying to stay on the offensive Monday, the prime minister was again taken off message by fresh questions on ethics and his judgment.

The Canadian Press revealed Sunday that former top adviser Bruce Carson, who is now under RCMP investigation, had been convicted on five counts of fraud -- three more than previously published -- and received court-ordered psychiatric treatment before he was hired by Harper.

The prime minister responded that he had known Carson had "difficulties with the law many, many years ago, some 25 years ago," but not all the troubles, or he suggested, the latest convictions, which came in 1990.

"I did not know about these revelations we're finding out today," he added. "I don't know why I did not know. Had I known these things, obviously I would not have hired him."

It was clearer sailing for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who travelled to Halifax following Sunday's launch of a party platform containing $8 billion in spending pledges, mostly aimed at helping families, students and the elderly.

Highlighting one aspect of the platform, Ignatieff told supporters a Liberal government would pay veterans the full costs of tuition, books, accommodations and living expenses for up to four years of post-secondary education or technical training. The program is estimated to cost $120 million over two years.

"While Stephen Harper chooses to spend $30 billion on untendered stealth-fighter jets, we're saying clearly our priority is vets, not jets," Ignatieff said.

"There can be no more fitting tribute to the service of our Canadian Forces than to guarantee that they have full support to go to college, university or technical training after they complete their service."

In response, Harper questioned whether the Liberals will be able to make $6 billion in savings from scrapping the most recent and next year's corporate tax cuts.

Ignatieff was having none of it, though. He said the party is only counting on $5.2 billion in extra revenues from the tax changes.

"We were very careful, we were prudent, we were cautious," he said. "We did very careful projections based on a series of independent estimates of revenue ... we definitely did not pull that out of the sky."

NDP Leader Jack Layton was in Toronto touting his plan to expand and improve the Canada Pension Plan. He moved to shore up an embarrassing hole in his line-up of candidates after Ryan Dolby defected to the Liberals in a London, Ont. riding.

He, too, was critical of the Liberal's new pledges, not because they were too costly, but because he said they were his ideas to start with.

Meanwhile, the Green party's Elizabeth May, still smarting from being excluded from upcoming televised debates, lamented the corporate control and concentration of the Canadian media and called for $450 million in additional funding for the CBC.