A chicken and a liar.

What on Earth possessed Harper yesterday to challenge Iggy to a duel? And less than 24 hours later refuse to show up? And then lie about the incident?

Here's Harper's "explanation" in Halifax today for why he's turning chicken in revoking his own challenge yesterday to Ignatieff for a one-on-one debate:

We were open to all kinds of options. Our first preference was a direct debate with the leader of the coalition. Mr. Ignatieff insisted that his first preference was to have his coalition partners with him at the debate. That’s the format that was proposed. We’ve accepted it.

We've learned - or re-learned - these past few days how hard Harper has worked to rewrite the history of his many past flirtations with a coalition to deny power to the party winning the most seats. We've heard less about his current cone of silence about to Ralph Klein with a brainwave on Alberta separatism (the scurrilous "firewall" letter of which Mr. H no longer speaks). And his belief that Belgium, sight unseen by Harper, has a better form of government than Canada. (Still without a government a year after its most recent election, Belgium now faces the prospect of breaking up on ethnic lines as the former Czechoslovakia did.) And there's Jim Flaherty's transports of admiration for a now-insolvent Ireland's ultra-low corporate-tax regime, which should be applied post haste to Canada. The Tories gone silent on those and other brain cramps. And the MSM, appreciating that people change and ideas are in flux, haven't dwelt on them.

And that, as an incident like this shows, was wrong. Since we've not challenged Harper on his past, we're all condemned to relive it.

How? In the fake costing of 65 jet-fighter planes. (Harper cost, $17 billion; real cost, $29 billion.) And the non-costing of new and expanded prisons that would be required by Harper's proposed tougher sentencing guidelines. (The outside estimates are roughly $9 billion.) It was a vote on that contempt of Parliament, and not the Flaherty's stillborn budget, that brought this government down last Friday. 

But this episode is astonishing, a Harper rewrite of events that unfolded just yesterday. To the question of how far Harper will go in insulting the voters, there is no apparent answer.

Soon after Harper suggested the notion yesterday of squaring off with Iggy alone in a televised debate, Iggy's immediate response in fact was:

A one-on-one debate? Any time, any place.

Iggy tweeted that response to the world, aware of the consequences of backing out.

Harper or his war room quickly decided the Tory leader's hustings challenge of a one-on-one debate was not such a great idea. So within hours, Harper was trying to reel back his own idea, in the most disengenuous way.

Harper yesterday tweeted Ignatieff:

Curiously, my team proposed 1:1 to TV consortium today; however, your team did not speak up. 

That is, excuse me, horse dung. The "teams" take their orders from the leaders. If the teams were tied up in logistical knots about an agreed-upon mano-a-mano, they'd just have to figure it out. Because their leaders were on record agreeing to a duel, and voters give a rat's ass about logistics.

Each leader would invite accusations of cowardice if he backed down. So Harper has tried his best to depict Ignatieff as being the one to duck a one-on-one debate.

And that's a lie.

Kinsella dumps all over Harper today as a "chicken."

It's worse. In this incident, Harper has shown himself to be cowardly and a liar.

I don't use either word lightly. I admonished Duceppe for his Day 2 labelling of Harper as a liar for distorting the intent of the notorious 2004 letter signed by Harper, Duceppe and Layton, making themselves available for the G-G's consideration as a coalition government seeking to deny Martin the chance to lead a minority government. There's enough wiggle room in the wording of that document to make "liar" uncalled for.

The PM's conduct yesterday and today are wholly different. The PM lied to Canadians. A bald-faced lie, and not about the intent of an arcane document seven years ago. But on the question of who said what in recent hours about a challenge to a duel - something any voter can relate to.

I don't get it. Partisan sentiment aside, what Harper and Ignatieff said is on videotape and printed-out tweets. Common sense says you can't try the gambit of the cheating good 'ol boy of C&W songs who, contronted by his wife, asks: "Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?"

For the umpteeth time in a campaign not a week old, Harper has stepped on his own message. But it's Week 1 and no one's paying attention. At least that's one of the truisms of the game. I have a feeling, though, that this item has legs, as Variety would say. 

If the folks at Grit ad agency Red Leaf aren't splicing up footage right now for ads on Harper's two-facedness to run during the NHL playoffs they should be fired.

Update

No name yet for the Tory campaign plane. Scott Feschuk suggests Chicken Wings.

 

Comments

[Darwin O'Connor]

Harper's lie the coalition wasn't about the 2004 letter. It was when he said that the coalition was illegitimate. Even if he never claimed something like the coalition was legitimate before, the fact is the coalition was legitimate and the Canadians who actually understand how our system of government works knew it was legitimate and as a life long policy-wonk and the Prime Minister of Canada Harper would have been one of those Canadians who knows how our system works.

[The Thorn]

Distort, distort, distort - and hope that no one is paying attention and that the media doesn't hold them to their twisted word

[Professor Errol Mendes]

David,
Glad that you are the first to remind voters about the Alberta firewall letter. I have just published an article in York Univ. a piece demonstrating that he has exended the firewall to the whole of Canada. It is titled The Revolution of the Night Watchman and located at
http://www.yorku.ca/robarts/projects/canada-watch/Harper/pdfs/Mendes.pdf

love to have your comments. Best,

Prof. Errol Mendes

[Brent Fullard]

Hey David Olive. You didn't seem to care a whit when Harper lied to Canadians in the 2006 election by saying that he'd NEVER tax income trusts. You even cared less (if that's possible) when Harper used the excuse that "income trusts cause tax leakage". When did you become so righteous?

[Polpundit]

Great headline! Harper is a congenital liar! And he did lie about his intent concerning the agreement with Layton and Duceppe to bring down the Martin government and replace it with a minority Harper government.
The Harper War Room political hawks have been humiliated by their leader's decision to back off his agreement to Ignatieff's Proposal for a head to head debate.
Harper lied again today! He has a serious psychological problem - he can't tell the truth when his sense of self is being criticized! He responds by telling a further lie!
How can Canadians trust having an egregiously flawed Harper as PM?
Even highly partisan Conservatives should think twice before they cast their vote for Mr. Harper.

[johnnyk]

Cons' Plane?
Lie Air

[Kate]

Lie Air hilarious.

[ChadS_LPC]

I heard via tweet the official name given by the media is: ScaremongAIR

[albertaclipper]

Why on Earth Are the Liberals Forcing an Election?

Here are the numbers I've found. The Liberals of running in:

19 of 36 ridings in BC
14 of 28 in Alberta
8 of 14 in Saskatchewan
7 of 14 in Manitoba
101 of 106 in Ontario
50 of 75 in Quebec
10 of 10 in New Brunswick
10 of 11 in Nova Scotia
3 of 4 in PEI
6 of 7 in Newfoundland
0 of 1 in the Yukon
1 of 1 in the NWT
0 of 1 in Nunavut

Coalition??

[Wascally Wabbit]

I'm not sure what point Albertaclipper is trying to make. The nominations haven't closed yet!
As for Scott Feschuk's plane name game - The Coalition is falling Air may be a little long for the average fuselage - but it captures the right image!

[FC]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61267535@N03/5578307316/

[Saskboy]

David, glad to see you caught up to what I've been saying for a while http://wp.me/pDJ8-y5

[Rob]

From the Toronto Star itself !

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/966428--canada-s-economy-shows-strong-start-to-the-year

Great work Mr. Harper.

[Sara-Anne Peterson]

It's about time the journalists twigged to the lies this man tells. He has been lying for years.

[dolive]

Rob, you'll have even more positive news about Harper's economic stewardship in the print edition Saturday or Sunday when they run by Harper economic scorecard. Also, I just credited him in a post tonight - defended him, actually - on his expert handling of the global economic meltdown.
What I don't see is a vision for the future - in education, especially enriched daycare (our kids must have a better start, and this is commonplace in Europe and Japan), in healthcare reform, in an industrial policy in which, like the most sustainably successful countries, we have a dozen or so areas of world-class excellence - we are, in a word, worldbeaters. We can start fostering that now, there's no time to lose.
On the lies, that's pretty commonplace but we can't excuse them, ever, as we don't from our friends, family, neighbors. A mistake is one thing, lying about it or trying to cover it up is where we morally fail.
Prof. Mendes, I've just printed out your work and look forward to writing to you about it. Please e-mail me with your e-mail address so I can respond. (dolive@thestar.ca)
I'm just now going to check out Saskboy's site and check FC's flickr link. How kind of you both.
For me, at least, "Lie Air" is the winner, though all the others are good. WW, if you're concerned about too many words, they could always use an acronym!

[dolive]

HI Brent, that's because I agree with the government policy, though I'll concede it was executed poorly. There was indeed tax leakage, I don't know what Finance was thinking in giving in to the innane concept. Pretty soon you'd have every country in the country transforming itself into a trust - they'd have to, or suffer a competitive disadvantage. Individuals would begin incorporating as well, as trusts. The Grits have to wear this one. As with Afghanistan, another tragic error, this one started with them, not the CPC.

[Platty]

Amazing how easy it is for you to call the PM a chicken and a liar from behind your keyboard, I trust you will be more than willing to say that to his face? Or will we be calling you the chicken when the opportunity arises? Never mind responding, we all know the answer.

[Robert Martin]

Since honesty counts maybe this video will enlighten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkdXycwDUxA&feature=player_embedded

[Rob]

Mr. Olive I enjoy your blog a lot and enjoy reading the various the comments. We probably don't/won't agree on a lot. But isn't diversity a good thing or is that just a conservative value?