Not an official member of the coalition... but who made the first call?
Ever since the constitutional crisis of December 2008 that ended with the prorogation of Parliament, the Conservatives have been referring to the "Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition."
The photo-op that brought Jack Layton, Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe together gave Stephen Harper's troops plenty of ammunition to sell that version of events and attack the opposition parties.
But the Liberals, NDP and even the Bloc have been arguing that Gilles Duceppe's party was not an actual member of the coalition, that the Bloc was only supporting it.
But a new book shows the truth might lie somewhere in the middle.
In "Gilles Duceppe: Entretiens avec Gilles Toupin" the author, a former La Presse Ottawa reporter and now self-described sovereigntist, quotes Duceppe as saying that following Jim Flaherty's controversial economic update: "I called Layton and I told him I had contacted Dion and that they had to talk."
While Layton was the first to approach the Bloc leader with the idea, Duceppe is the one who encouraged the actual coalition members to sit down and talk.
At the Ottawa event marking the launch of the book, Duceppe told reporters that the Liberals and the NDP had no economic plan ready at the time, so they pretty much adopted the Bloc's. Duceppe also says he's still open to supporting other parties, including the Conservatives, as long as it's in Quebec's best interest.
The book is only available in French, but you can bet some people will want to translate the (short) section on the coalition days to show that while opposition parties might say the Bloc wasn't an official member of the coalition, its fingerprints were all over the deal
Not an official member of the coalition... but who made the first call? - Inside Politics
Sorry about the font.
And......I told you so.
Time for a Conservative majority.
Voting Conservative has become (unfortunately) the ONLY alternative if you give a damn about Canada.