First Casualties

Truth is not only the first casualty of war, there's a great big bull's eye painted on its back during election campaigns as well.

The 2011 federal election campaign is only a few hours old, but already the baloney is being sliced thick and fast.

The Conservatives have been trying for a long time to demonize the idea of a coalition among the parties that represent the votes of nearly two-thirds of Canadians. Stephen Harper, in fact, kicked off his campaign by denying that he had been willing to enter into a coalition with the Bloc Québecois and New Democrats in 2004 when Paul Martin was Prime Minister. Here is the text of the letter that he, Gilles Duceppe, and Jack Layton sent to the Governor-General at the time. You be the judge.

He pretended to be gracious, retreating from his earlier position that a coalition would not be "legitimate" (he shut down Parliament to prevent the opposition parties from forming one in 2008). But, referring to the Bloc, he contended that it would not be "principled to have a party dedicated to the break up of our country having a hand in running the government."

He's onto to something here: Canadians outside Quebec are extremely uncomfortable with the notion of a coalition that includes the Bloc.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff promptly tried put the coalition issue to rest, going so far as to state, "We will not enter a coalition with other federalist parties."

In an election campaign, no one runs hoping to form a coalition. Both Harper and Ignatieff are hoping to gain a majority, but you can bet we haven't heard the last of coalitions from the Conservatives.

Another major theme of the Conservatives' campaign appears to be that the opposition is threatening the viability of the Canadian economy by defeating the government. They point to their stillborn budget as the blueprint that would have ensured prosperity for all.

But the Conservatives' own Economic Stimulus Program, on which they spent $26 million in public money to promote with an avalanche of advertising just this month, expires in five days. Their budget, a combination of corporate welfare aimed primarily at the big banks and oil companies and "boutique" tax cuts for select groups, was designed to push a few votes their way during the election campaign they knew it would provoke.

And in 2008, Harper was untroubled by the uncertainty an election would cause when he called an election just as the world economy was sliding into the Great Recession.

Canada survived that crisis better than most nations mainly because our banks (for once) didn't engage in the risky practices of their American and European counterparts, and because of the credibility of our central banker, Mark Carney. Harper and his finance minister, Jim Flaherty had to be forced kicking and screaming to adopt the Liberal and NDP measures that came to be called the Economic Stimulus Program.

Am I being more critical of Harper and the Conservatives than I am of the Liberals and NDP? Well, yes. But that's because Harper has a record in government for which he must be accountable. All we can do with Ignatieff and Layton is try to take their measure based on how credible they seem.

Harper would like you to ignore his record. That's why the Conservatives are trying so hard to smear their opponents. Hold on: this is going to be one dirty campaign.