In the final days of the election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sticking to the same appeal to voters for a majority government that he started with, but now there's a twist.
It's either a Conservative majority, Harper says, or the potential of a coalition -- but now, that coalition could be led by NDP Leader Jack Layton, not Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
"The alternative to us if there's not a majority will be a minority Parliament, with a very good likelihood of the other parties getting together . . . and that looks now, like it would be an NDP-led coalition," he said in an interview Wednesday with Lloyd Robertson, Chief Anchor and Senior Editor of Â鶹´«Ã½.
"If you look at their tax-and-spend policies that would just be disastrous for the country.
"Those are the choices."
Harper has maintained throughout the campaign that the alternative to a Conservative majority is a coalition of the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois, an unstable union that would lead to more trips to the ballot box in the coming years.
Ignatieff has flatly denied that he would enter into a coalition. Layton said he's willing to co-operate with anyone, including the Conservatives.
If given a minority, Harper has said all campaign he would deliver the same budget as he did in March.
But Wednesday, he said he's willing to listen.
"I could not have governed as long in a minority situation if I didn't listen to the opposition," he said.
That said, Harper added: "If we are elected to a minority, I will accept that minority and I will govern, but I would warn Canadians that I don't think the other parties will ever accept that."
When asked what his personal future would be if only given a minority, Harper said he's only thinking about a majority
Earlier Wednesday, Harper responded to poll results that put the NDP in second placenationally behind the Conservatives by saying a vote for the New Democrats is a vote for higher spending and higher taxes during a delicate economic recovery.
"The fact that the NDP may be the leading opposition party, that I think actually clarifies the choice for Canadians," Harper said during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Ont.
The most recent Nanos Research poll shows the Tories at 37.8 per cent support nationally, followed by the NDP at 27.8 per cent. The Liberals are in third with 22.3 per cent support.
When asked by a reporter if he thinks Canadians will finally give him that elusive majority mandate, Harper responded by saying "the choice is of trust in this election. Do voters want to trust three parties that will not form the government, will get together after the election and tell you then what their real platform is?"
While the NDP's platform includes "polices that are designed for opposition, rather than for actually governing," the Tories have kept a steady hand at the wheel of the economy and have "one of the best records, in fact, coming out of the recession in the world," Harper said.
The Conservative leader suggested that tax hikes under the NDP would be unappealing to Quebecers, "one of the most overtaxed peoples in North America.
"I am confident they will want to be part of a government finally that will not raise taxes, that will focus from the economy and create jobs and stay away from reopening the constitution."
Harper's shot about the constitution was a reference to Layton's vow on Tuesday to eventually bring Quebec into the constitutional fold. The NDP leader said Quebec's exclusion from the constitution has gone on long enough, and he would reopen negotiations after he creates "the winning conditions for Canada in Quebec."
Harper said Wednesday that Quebecers don't want "more referendums, more battles over national unity -- all things Quebecers more than anyone else want to avoid."
