Hey Look! It's Ed!

Mr. Broadbent weighs in...

Harper 'lies' about coalition details: Broadbent
PM 'shameful' in portraying crisis as national unity issue, former NDP leader says

To save his own government, Stephen Harper is deliberately trying to deceive Canadians about the facts surrounding a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said Wednesday.

In an interview with CBC News in Toronto, a furious Broadbent had harsh words for the prime minister, saying Harper was also trying to pit English Canada against Quebecers in his attempt to discredit the proposed coalition to replace him if the Conservative minority government falls.

Yup. I could go on at some length about the whole the-coalition-is-bad-for-national-unity line of attack, but instead I'll just send you over to Peace, Order, and Good Government, Eh? to read Purple Library Guy's post on the issue. Wow, this blogging thing sure is easy...

I would merely point out here the hypocrisy of shrieking about the Liberals being in bed with the Bloc when it turns out that Stockwell Day was contemplating doing exactly the same thing a few years ago (read right to the end of the article). Goose, gander, good, etc.

"I've never seen the leader of a Conservative party, certainly not Bob Stanfield, certainly not Joe Clark, lie — I choose the word deliberately — the way Mr. Harper has," Broadbent said.

Yup again. Today's Conservatives are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the Tories of yore. One could very often disagree with the policies of the old Progressive Conservative Party (and I usually did), but one never got the impression that it's members viewed Canada with the kind of angry contempt so prevalent in today's Conservatives.

It also occurs to me that I would really, really, like to hear Joe Clark's opinion of this whole situation...

The former NDP leader, who helped negotiate Monday's deal between the New Democrats and the Liberals with the support of the Bloc Québécois, said Harper also lied when he said the three opposition leaders refused to sign their agreement in front of a Canadian flag because Gilles Duceppe, a Quebec sovereigntist, objected.

The funniest about that bit of hysterical mendacity was that the opposition leaders signed the agreement in front of not one, but TWO Canadian flags, AND a portrait of the Fathers of Confederation. So, if one were silly enough to measure the patriotism of the coalition leaders by their physical proximity to symbols of the nation, then they're actually doing just fine. Although... they could have brought along a beaver... and invited Paul Henderson... and arrived at the meeting by canoe... and so on and so forth.

In other news... Rally Tomorrow!!