With the Stephen Harper-led Conservative Party in a tailspin, he and his supporters are pulling out all the stops to paint a Liberal and NDP coalition with the Bloc Quebecois as a deal with the devil that will "destroy Canada."

The problem for Harper in this whole smear campaign is that in 2004 he proposed to the Governor General a coalition with the Bloc Quebecois.

The Globe and Mail has an excerpt from a 2004 letter from Harper to the Governor General in which he states:

"We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority."

Now at the time, the Liberals had 135 seats, the Conservative Party had 99 seats, the Bloc Quebecois had 54 seats and the NDP had 19 seats.

So when Harper said that "the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority," that included the Bloc Quebecois. He could not have formed a minority coalition government without the 54 Bloc Quebecois seats.

Kevin Grandia contributes to the Vote for Environment blog, where a version of this post first appeared.