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Originally Posted by Slava
I didn't mean to imply that Meighen had a coalition. He won the most seats, but King convinced the GG that he could form a coalition with the 28 progressives forming a coalition. He did and everything was fine for the year.
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Ahh, true enough.
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Bottom-line is that a coalition is totally legitimate, and had the opposition gone to the GG and said they lost confidence and wanted to have a shot to form government it could've happened. With the Liberals and NDP targeting each others ridings though its fairly obvious that Harper is just wrong with his coalition assertion. Its all smoke and mirrors.
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While such a coalition was technically possible, I still maintain that the GG would always prefer to avoid the crisis such a move would create. Calling an election was always the only reasonable option.
And you should know as well as anyone that politics isn't about truth, but belief. So long as the population believes that a coalition is realistic, and that coalitions are bad, Harper will push it. Just as Martin and Dion pushed the "Harper is scary and will destroy the country" argument. And in this case, we already have Dion stating on the record in 2008 that he would neither form a coalition with the NDP nor work with the separatists before the vote, and signing a formal agreement not two months after. The poll I linked to above notes that Ignatieff's flat denials aren't being trusted, and he has Dion to thank for that.