Lies and the lying liars who tell them

As is usually the case in the wake of a Con public relations blitz, there are loads of outright lies just waiting to be refuted. For now, let's take a moment to deal with one of the more obvious ones.

Here's the claim of Con MP Leon Benoit, which appears to be a fairly standard Con talking point:

Benoit stated that before the election Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Stéphane Dion all had said they were not in favour of forming a coalition government.

Leaving aside the fact that Stephen Harper personally mentioned the possibility of a coalition, let's review what the other party leaders said about it during the course of the campaign.

Jack Layton was asked many times about the possibility of a coalition government. But throughout the campaign he at least left the door open to the possibility:

NDP Leader Jack Layton refused Monday to rule out the possibility of entering an alliance with the federal Liberals to prevent another Harper government.

“I've worked with any other party. I think people have seen that. Maybe it goes back to my days on municipal council – you roll up your sleeves and you try to solve a problem,” Mr. Layton said in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.

“I think right now the problem we have is Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. They're taking the country down the wrong path.”

Only in the world of Con spin could that be taken as a declaration that Layton wouldn't participate in a coalition. (Indeed, the same article features James Moore bashing Layton for having agreed to the idea of a coalition which the Cons now claim was never discussed.) And Layton's position remained substantially the same until election day:

NDP Leader Jack Layton says he will wait until after the votes are counted tonight to talk about coalitions with other parties.

"One has to see what Canadians are going to decide. After that, one can evaluate the situation," Mr. Layton told reporters at a campaign stop yesterday in the Toronto riding of York South-Weston.

In sum, it should be obvious that Layton consistently left open the possibility of a coalition, and equally consistently took that position that the time to discuss the idea would be after the election.

Similarly, Gilles Duceppe plainly signalled his willingness to work with the Liberals if a particular policy or idea proved to be beneficial for Quebec:

Earlier in the day, Mr. (Duceppe) said he is willing to forge alliances with Stéphane Dion on issues such as the environment to advance Quebec's interests...

“We don't mind if it's a red label, a green label, a yellow label, or a blue label…any kind of label. We look at the substance of each proposal and then we look if it goes in the direction of Quebec's interest and Quebec values. If it does we support it, if not we oppose it,” Mr. Duceppe said.

And of course, it's worth highlighting that the Bloc's involvement is limited to having accepted the proposal to bring down Harper's government and support the Lib/NDP coalition. Which would plainly fit within the type of action Duceppe suggested would be appropriate for his party.

In sum, the Cons are flat-out lying about what two of the three opposition parties said during the course of the election campaign - and all in the name of an argument about honesty and legitimacy. And their demand for another election to ratify a concept which was already obviously in front of Canadian voters represents little more than a declaration of entitlement to decide for the opposition parties when and how they can discuss working together.

(Edit: fixed typo.)