Harper 'lies' about coalition details: Broadbent
PM 'shameful' in portraying crisis as national unity issue, former NDP leader says
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 | 1:42 PM ET
CBC News
Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent speaking in Toronto Wednesday. (CBC)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.
"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.
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.
In fact, there were at least two flags present at Monday's signing ceremony, as well as a painting of the Fathers of Confederation.
Broadbent said Harper is conducting a "shameful operation" by trying to turn certain defeat in the House of Commons into a national unity crisis.
"I'm concerned I have a prime minister who lies to the people of Canada and knows it," Broadbent said. "It's one thing to exaggerate. It's another to deliberately tell falsehoods."
The former NDP leader also accused Harper of lying about the details of the proposed coalition, including his charge that the Bloc Québécois is a formal partner and that six Bloc MPs would be offered Senate positions under the coalition government.
The Bloc has said it will support the Liberal-NDP coalition for 18 months in the House of Commons, but none of its members will sit in a cabinet led by Stéphane Dion as prime minister and a Liberal as finance minister.
"They make it up," he said of Harper's Conservatives, who have been quick to label the proposal a "separatist coalition."
"They lie. They pay people to destroy things."
Clark, Stanfield 'would have done the proper thing'
Broadbent said he understood how some Canadians are furious to watch politicians fighting while the economy continues to be battered.
"I have no doubt that is how they see it in the short run, but we are doing what should be done in a parliamentary democracy," he said.
"They're trying to turn a serious economic situation into a political crisis. We will say we objected because there is a serious economic situation for Canadians."
The opposition's proposed economic stimulus package, Broadbent said, contains similar measures to ones planned by U.S. president-elect Barack Obama in the wake of the global economic crisis.
"Other countries are doing it and we should be doing it here," he said.
He said Harper was betraying the honourable legacy of past party leaders by continuing to delay a confidence vote in the House of Commons. The prime minister pushed back the confidence motion brought by the opposition parties until next Monday and could delay a vote indefinitely by proroguing Parliament.
"I had, my predecessors had a sense of integrity. Bob Stanfield, a Conservative, Joe Clark, a Conservative, had a sense of integrity," Broadbent said.
"They would have done the proper thing. If we lost the confidence, then we would accept that and have to resign."
