OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to visit Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean tomorrow morning to ask her to halt Parliament temporarily or allow a snap election to be held.

A spokesperson for Harper suggested this afternoon that the prime minister would take action early tomorrow to break the current deadlock in the House of Commons.

His most likely request is to ask Jean to suspend Parliament until January, at which time the Conservatives would bring down a budget containing an economic stimulus package.

Harper, meantime, will deliver a televised address to the nation tonight. Officials have confirmed that the prime minister has asked the television networks to let him appear at 7 p.m.

The coalition will ask for equal time in order for Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion to respond, a Liberal official said.

Kory Teneycke, Harper's director of communications, confirmed that the prime minister would make a statement, but said the 10-minute speech, in French and English, would be taped, not live.

Emerging from a morning Conservative caucus meeting, he said Harper had not scheduled a meeting with Jean "at this time."

She returned home from Europe this afternoon and would have to approve any request from Harper to discontinue Parliament and avoid his government's defeat next week.

Late today, Harper said he has invited the provincial and territorial premiers to a January meeting to discuss ways their governments can cooperate in dealing with the economic crisis.

"My DNA would never allow me to do a deal with the socialists and my heart would never allow me to do a deal with the separatists," Day said, claiming he never saw or heard about the document until last night.

Day dared the Bloc to repeat its allegations outside the House, where MPs are not protected against accusations of libel by privilege.

The Globe and Mail reported today that the 2000 offer of a deal between Day, PC and Bloc officials was proposed in a letter sent by Calgary lawyer Gerry Chipeur.

The newspaper quoted prominent sovereigntist lawyer Eric Bédard as the person who received the proposal.

A Bloc official then handed out a copy of a Globe and Mail article from July, 29, 2000 that said Day, then Canadian Alliance leader, reefused to rule out forming a coalition with the BQ.

Some of the NDP and Liberal MPs levelled their attacks at Harper personally, calling him a demagogue and the source of the bitterness that has led Parliament to its constitutional crisis.

“The prime minister is the problem,” Liberal MP Denis Coderre (Bourassa) told reporters. “He is more interested in his own little power trip.”

Coderre said Harper has been talking from both sides of his mouth, one moment saying he wanted to work with the three opposition parties to tackle the economic crisis and then the next trying to bankrupt parties by withdrawing public funding.

Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) said the prime minister has turned into the “a demagogue and is hiding behind the Canadian flag but will not focus . . . on the needs of the country.”

Meanwhile, there were signs this morning that the Liberals may be willing to entertain other options besides defeating the government and replacing it with a coalition.

Arriving to the weekly caucus meeting, Liberal MP Keith Martin said it was not too late for Harper to reach across the aisle and work with them.

But Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay said it would be too difficult to negotiate with Harper at this point.

"Negotiations with someone we can't trust are not going to be terribly productive," she said.

After being pressed for a straight answer over whether the Harper government must end now, Hall Findlay said: "Yes. Yes it should be," although she added she could not know which path the Governor General would take.

When asked whether there was any room to negotiate with Harper, Liberal MP Ujal Dosanjh said he could not be trusted.

"As far as I'm concerned, the fact is that we can't trust the prime minister. But instead of attempting to incite a national unity crisis as he tried to do so vulgarly, he should be offering an economic stimulus package for the country," he said.

"He could be more constructive, rather than branding people essentially as unpatriotic."

Windsor NDP MP Joe Comartin said the coalition is prepared to bring down the Conservative government even before the Conservatives get to deliver a budget.

Comartin said that scenario would play out if the government is successful in convincing the Governor General to prorogue Parliament.

The Conservatives are hoping the several week break over Christmas would give them time to whip up public support and allow them to return with a new throne speech followed closely by a budget.

But opposition critics accuse the government of stalling the inevitable.

"The first confidence vote won't be on the budget, the first confidence vote will be on the throne speech. Everyone I talk to from the Bloc and the Liberals say they are prepared to vote against the throne speech because they no longer trust Harper," Comartin told the Star.

One Conservative MP emerged from caucus this morning wearing a button that read "coup" with a red circle and line through it. Tory cabinet minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said a decision on prorogation "is to come."

The political crisis gave rise to some of the fiercest parliamentary exchanges in a decade yesterday.

Fighting for his political life, Harper has given the nod to pep rallies, an advertising blitz and speeches by ministers to sway public opinion in his favour.

Adding to the intrigue, the Bloc Québécois said it is seeking up to $500 million in post-secondary education transfers in the first budget of a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition government, suggesting that — while it has pledged to support the coalition — it won't be a silent backer.

The prime minister led the way yesterday in calling the proposed coalition that wants to replace him "undemocratic" and a threat to national unity.

He derided it for handing the balance of power to "separatists" — an accusation his rivals mocked, citing Harper's own government's reliance on the Bloc Québécois to pass two budgets in the past.

Conservatives have been shocked at the speed of events, but, for now, they're rallying behind their leader.

"A national televised address would be a great idea" for Harper, said one Conservative MP. "Real and abject humility is an even better idea."

However, none was in evidence from Harper — or his critics — yesterday. In one of the most ferocious question periods since those that followed the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum, Dion and Harper savaged each other over which leader could lay claim to a democratic mantle.

Dion, in a bid to pressure Harper into letting the non-confidence vote proceed, set the tone, throwing up Harper's own words in May 2005, when Harper was Opposition leader, in his face.

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"The whole principle of our democracy is the government is supposed to be able to face the House of Commons any day on a vote," Dion quoted Harper as saying.

But Harper retorted "the highest principle" of Canadian democracy is to have an elected mandate.

Dion's pact to govern in a coalition with the "socialist" New Democrats, which would rely on support of "separatists" in the Bloc Québécois, was, Harper said, a "betrayal of the best interests of our country, and we will fight it with every means that we have."

Dion replied that every MP "received a mandate from the Canadian people to deliver a government that will face the economic crisis. The prime minister has failed.. The prime minister does not have the support of the House any more."

"If the leader of the Opposition thinks he has support for this, he should have the confidence to take this to the people of Canada who will reject it," Harper said.

Conservative members jumped to their feet often to cheer Harper.

The prime minister falsely claimed that Dion, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who signed an agreement on Monday in front of TV cameras, were too afraid to do so with the Canadian flag behind them "because a member of their coalition does not even believe in the country."

Pictures of the event clearly show two Canadian flags, as well as the flags of every province and territory.

An impassioned Dion pointed a finger across the aisle and rebutted Harper's charge that the agreement with the Bloc to support the NDP-Liberal coalition for 18 months would hand over extraordinary powers and divide the country.

"I've given my life for the unity of this country, for my love of Canada. With this agreement, the Bloc accepted to have 18 months of political stability in Canada. That's what Canada got out of this accord."

Harper challenged Dion that "if he believes in the country, he will walk away from this document and admit it is the worst mistake the Liberal party has ever made in its history."

Conservative cabinet ministers later took their turns endorsing Harper and slamming Dion for his alliance with the Bloc, with Transport Minister John Baird charging that the Liberals were "getting into bed with Quebec separatists."

But Harper's line of attack opened him up to further criticism that he is needlessly escalating the crisis.

"The prime minister should not be making it a national unity crisis," Layton said.

Dion argued later that the coalition will bring 18 months of political stability and suggested it might help reconcile Quebec separatists.

Duceppe mocked Harper as hypocritical, saying the Tory leader was happy to work with the Bloc in the past: "Let's say he had a lot less fear of the nasty separatists back then."

Bloc House leader Pierre Paquette said yesterday the party is asking to see $400 million to $500 million of $820 million it says Quebec is owed in postsecondary education transfer payments in the coalition government's first budget.

Paquette told La Presse's Malorie Beauchemin that the Bloc received a favourable initial response from the other two parties. He added the Bloc would ensure the coalition government respects federal spending jurisdiction or gives Quebec the right to withdraw from programs with full compensation.

The coalition came together last week over the opposition parties' rejection of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's economic policy statement. That statement contained little in the way of economic stimulus but proposed to take away the rights of federal workers to strike, clamp down on pay equity and, critically, eliminate public subsidies for political parties.

While the Conservatives have been forced to backpedal on some of the measures, it hasn't been enough to placate opposition MPs.

Meanwhile, some Conservative stalwarts from the West spoke out, saying the government was not blameless in the political crisis.

Deborah Grey, a former Canadian Alliance and Reform MP, urged Harper to say on national television that he'd made a mistake with the economic statement, and shift the focus back to the economy.

Former Reform leader Preston Manning warned the crisis threatens the economy, but he admitted that Harper's inclusion of cuts to subsidies for political parties in the economic update "may have been a factor" in precipitating the crisis.

The Conservatives started their offensive early yesterday, when a senior aide to Harper gathered reporters to denounce the coalition as "unprecedented" and "undemocratic" while vowing to fight the political move by "every legal means."

"What do I mean by every legal means available? Things like this," the aide said, putting a bullhorn on the table. He said the party would be organizing rallies, online petitions and ramping up the Conservative advertising machine.

But pro-coalition forces are moving forward with their own strategies to swing public opinion in their favour, including a rally on Parliament Hill tomorrow.

Eighteen groups, including the 3.1 million-member Canadian Labour Congress, are supporting the coalition, as is Green Leader Elizabeth May.

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