The political showdown in Ottawa reached a fever pitch in Parliament Tuesday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused his foes of "betraying" voters while the opposition said the Tories have been misleading the country with doublespeak.
During a fiery question period session, where MPs hurled accusations and openly shouted at each other across the benches, Harper said that the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois want to "scrap" the results of the last election.
Harper also accused Dion of trying to use "parliamentary niceties" to grab power and become prime minister.
"If you want to be prime minister, you get your mandate from the Canadian people, not from the separatists," he said.
The prime minister was expected to meet with Governor General Michaelle Jean on Wednesday, and then address Canadians in a televised address. However, sources told CTV News late Tuesday that he will wait until later in the week before meeting Jean, to see if the coalition wavers or falls apart, and then ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament -- shutting down the House of Commons until January.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives launched a series of radio ads Tuesday aiming to sway public support against the opposition's attempts to topple the party and form a coalition government.
Dion fired back in Parliament and said the Tories were in a holding pattern and simply prolonging their eventual defeat.
"The prime minister failed," said Dion, pushing for a confidence vote. "If he was a democrat, he would allow this House to show how much he failed."
The opposition plans to defeat the government with a non-confidence vote next Monday.
Dion also said the Conservatives have been blatantly contradicting themselves by saying one thing in English and another in French.
"He's saying that we Liberals are selling Canada to the separatists, and his Quebec MPs are saying that the separatists are selling their soul to the Liberals! He needs to choose between these two lies," Dion said.
Under the terms of the coalition agreement, the Liberals and New Democrats would form the government, but would be supported by the Bloc Quebecois.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, meanwhile, said that Harper himself was prepared to form a government with the Bloc four years ago is making the accusations in order to slander his political opponents.
"He's making them now in order to try and turn Canadians against the kind of economic action they so desperately want to see," said Layton. "We're going to talk to Canadians and tell them the truth about what's happening here."
Tory attack ads
The ads take a swipe at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, who would serve as prime minister if the coalition took office, claiming he broke his word by joining forces with the Bloc.
"Last election, Stephane Dion gave his word, he said his Liberals would never form a coalition with the NDP," the radio ad states, before running a clip of Dion.
"We cannot have a coalition with a party that has a platform that would be damaging for the economy. Period," Dion can be heard saying.
"But now he's cut a deal with the NDP and he's working with separatists to make it happen. He even thinks he can take power without asking you, the voter. This is Canada; power must be earned, not taken."
Another radio ad accuses Dion of attempting to take power through the "back door" despite having lost the recent election.
Governor General coming home
Earlier Tuesday, the Governor General cut short her European tour and made plans to head home early to deal with the current political crisis in Ottawa.
"This is part of our democratic system," Jean told Radio-Canada on Tuesday.
"The role of the Governor General is to make sure that our governance is on the right path. So as soon as I'm back I will fulfil my duties in total, sound judgment."
On Monday the New Democrats, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois signed an accord and informed Jean they would defeat the Conservatives on a confidence motion scheduled for Monday.
They told Jean that a Liberal-NDP government is ready to take over government.
Jean has been on an official visit to central Europe since Nov. 24. If the government is brought down, she would have to decide whether to give the coalition the chance to govern, or dissolve Parliament and send Canadians back to the polls, less than two months after the federal election.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives are pulling out all the stops to prevent the coalition from toppling the government on Monday when Parliament votes on last week's contentious fiscal update, which triggered the political crisis.
The fight has largely become a public relations war, with the Conservatives describing the move as a "power grab" and spreading the message that the Liberals and NDP are effectively handing the balance of power to the Bloc Quebecois.
Under the accord, Dion would serve as interim prime minister until May, when the Liberals will elect a new party leader who would then become prime minister.
It's the first time since 1926 that Canadians face the possibility of changing governments without an election.
Dion said the coalition would include a pared-down cabinet with 24 ministers plus the prime minister. Six of those spots will go to the NDP.
Dion was clear that he would step aside when the Liberals elect a new leader in Vancouver on May 2.
