Harper stoops to telling the West one thing and Quebec another

In their desperate attempt to obfuscate and fabricate about the NDP-Liberal coalition's accord, the Tories have the divided the country by telling Westerners one thing and Quebecers another when it comes to the Bloc's role in the coaltion.

Today's story by Canadian Press exposes the Tory double-speak:

"And - at least in English - the Conservatives repeatedly stated that the Bloc will have a "veto" over every policy of the new coalition. In French, however, Public Works Minister Christian Paradis cited a Liberal MP to claim that "the leader of the Bloc has signed a blank cheque and given away his independence."

The Conservative message for Western Canada is that the coalition "gives a veto to the Bloc." and the Conservative message for Quebec is that the Bloc has "signed a blank cheque" to the coalition.

Clearly it can't be both -- and it isn't.

In reality the Bloc has agreed to support the coalition's legislative agenda for 18 months under the accord - neither initiating or supporting motions of non-confidence - a much more secure arrangement in fact than the bill-by-bill basis upon which Harper has bought the support of Bloc MPs over the years.