Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is refusing to say if he would honour any decision by Governor General David Johnston to invite NDP Leader Jack Layton to form a government if the Tories fail to win a majority on Monday.

Harper repeatedly ducked the question during a tense media availability at a Richmond Hill auto shop on Saturday where journalists were booed and heckled by a throng of Tory partisans.

“I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals. We’re in this to win,” he said.

If the election is, as polls suggest, inconclusive, Johnston can, by law, ask Layton and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe if they could form a government that would have the confidence of Parliament.

When CBC Television reporter Terry Milewski asked Harper why he was “ducking the question,” the invite-only group of Tory supporters tried to shout him down.

“Shut down the CBC!” yelled one man, provoking cheers from the crowd.

Because Harper limits questions to just four per day for the national media covering his campaign – and paying $1,900 daily for each reporter for travel costs – journalists are forced to work together to craft their line of questioning.

Each morning, they meet and discuss the two English and two French questions they will ask, so Milewski was acting on behalf of all the media organizations aboard the Conservatives’ tour not just the CBC.

The Tory backers were far more magnanimous toward Harper, serenading him twice with renditions of “Happy Birthday” and presenting him with a cake to mark his 52nd birthday Saturday.

No reporters were seen singing or eating cake.

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