Ajax

The federal Liberals won’t be tag-teaming with Thomas Mulcair’s NDP during the election campaign to bring down the Stephen Harper Conservatives, Leader Justin Trudeau says.

But while Trudeau said he is against a coalition government, he did not slam the door on co-operating with other parties to pass legislation that appeals to both.

A similar kind of informal co-operation saw the Ontario minority Liberal government stay afloat with the help of the NDP.

The Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne governments were able to survive several confidence votes by incorporating Andrea Horwath’s NDP ideas into their budgets.

During a stop in Ajax to re-announce his middle-class tax cuts, Trudeau was asked if he would consider a coalition with the NDP to defeat Harper, who was the subject of a highly critical piece that ran over the weekend in the New York Times.

“I don’t believe in backroom deals or arrangements among leaders,” Trudeau said.

Canadians deserve the full array of party choices, he added.

Asked if that was a flat-out refusal, Trudeau said, “I’ve said consistently that I do not believe in formal coalitions.

“The Liberal Party is always, of course, as it always has been, open to working with other parties elected in the House of Commons to pass the right legislation to help Canadians.”