Harper's Campaign Strategy Goes up in Smoke as Most Canadians Prefer a Coalition to a Harper Majority

I believe that Stephen Harper was trying to recreate the uproar over the 2008 coalition, when his successful campaign worked and boosted his popularity. He hadn't counted on the media digging in to his own coalition in 2004, that as his then campaign manager, Tom Flanagan confirmed, included the full support of the Bloc.

They were even able to unearth an old Mike Duffy program where he speaks of Stephen Harper becoming prime minister in 2004, though he lost at the polls. And his bold move was at the throne speech.

Now a recent poll has revealed that the majority of Canadians prefer an NDP-Liberal coalition over a Harper majority, so long as it does not include the Bloc.

More than half of Canadians would prefer a Liberal-NDP coalition to a Harper majority government, results of an exclusive poll for Postmedia News and Global National suggest. Conservative leader Stephen Harper launched his campaign with a clear message to Canadians: Coalitions are unstable and will derail the country's economy. But Canadians don't appear to be too nervous: 54 per cent of those polled said they would favour a Liberal-NDP blend to a Harper majority.

What will be remembered from this is that Stephen Harper lied and continues to lie despite the overwhelming evidence that he is lying.

This again will put into question Harper's integrity, because only his coalition had the full support of the Bloc. In 2008 it was only an agreement that the Bloc support the coalition on confidence issues, guaranteeing it's stability for 18 months.

However, given Harper's stubbornness, he will probably continue this nonsense, since he has now told us that Canadians really don't care what he does.

Even after the media has beaten him up on the question of the coalition, Harper continues to rant on the issue. Even after the CBC did a 5-minute feature which repeatedly implied that Harper was lying, he still won't drop it. The CBC's piece by ex-reporter Brian Stewart, examined in minute detail the coalition proposal put forward by the Liberals and the NDP in 2008 -- underlining that the Bloc was never a part of the agreement, that it was signed by just the two federal parties and that the Bloc would have no direct role. The piece also dealt with Harper's efforts to form a coalition in 2006. Harper's insistence on saying that Ignatieff is planning a coalition -- even stating that he "is still saying he will" -- just underlines the importance of the ethics issue in the election.