By way of clarification

One of the current memes circulating around Canadian political punditry is the claim that the legitimacy of any coalition government following the next Canadian election would be dependent on what's been promised during the course of the campaign, such that Michaelle Jean should take into account leaders' statements from the campaign in determining whether to recognize a coalition government - and perhaps refuse to recognize a coalition agreement if anybody's promised not to enter into one. And it's time to call bullshit on that argument in the clearest of terms.

Whatever one's view about the basic ethics underlying the actions involved, the Governor-General hasn't treated the Cons' election promises as reason to refuse the exercise of what would otherwise be constitutional powers (such as, say, appointing senators or calling an election in advance of a fixed election date). And while ideally I'd like to see as many of the opposition parties as possible actually defend the idea of a coalition in principle so that the issue doesn't arise, there's absolutely no basis for applying a different standard to a coalition which might form following an election based on what's said during the course of the campaign.