Stephen Harper vows to teach opponents a lesson, "make sure their little coalition never happens"

Just up on our site now:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is calling for a majority Conservative government to “teach” his political opponents and “their little coalition” a lesson, according to a video leaked to the Opposition Liberals.

Harper and other Conservatives have, by and large, been reluctant for the last four years to speak publicly about the possibility of a majority Conservative government for fear it might alienate “soft” supporters who would drift back to another party.

Indeed, when Canwest News Service asked Harper in mid-August how he intended to win a majority government, he would not answer the question, saying only that he did not want an election.

But in last week's 10-minute speech to a partisan Northern Ontario crowd, Harper spent several minutes arguing that the country needs a Conservative majority government and urged supporters to work toward that end.

Here's my 'rush' transcript of the back half of Harper's comments:

The thing I’m most proud of as a government – instead of constantly asking our Canadian Forces to do more with less, we have given them the equipment they need and the respect they deserve. I just ask you for a moment to imagine how different things would be if the Liberals were still in power. Imagine the bloated bureaucracy they would have created and not have delivered a single-child care space. Imagine how many left-wing ideologues they would be putting in the courts, federal institutions, agencies, the Senate – I should say, how many more they would be putting in. Imagine the damage Mr. Ignatieff’s carbon tax would be doing to our economy in the middle of a global recession. We have come forward with our Economic Action Plan. It’s one of the largest-scale stimulus measures in the world. We’re delivering it in a rapid way but our spending friends is temporary. The opposition has been clear: We should be spending a lot more and we should make that spending permanent. And they have said — and I know Mr. Ignatieff’s trying to change his tune … they have said repeatedly they would raise taxes to pay for their permanent spending and that is one biggest reasons this government needs to be re-elected so that when the recession is over we can keep taxes going down in this country.

That will be the choice. I hear rumours, these days, we may be going to an election. The next election will be a choice between higher spending and higher taxes or it will be a choice between a balanced budget and keeping taxes doing down. It will be a choice between cracking down on crime or returning to soft-on-crime policies. But most of all – it will be a choice between having a conservative government and not having a conservative government. And let me be clear about this: We need to win a majority in the next election campaign. I’m not just saying because we need a few more seats. We saw what happened last year. Do not be fooled for a moment. If we do not get a majority, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will combine and they will form a government. They will deny this till they’re blue in the face in an election campaign but I guarantee you if we do not win a majority, this country will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists. That government may not last very long but every day it’s in office it will do long-term real-damage to this country. This country cannot afford a government like that. If they force us to the polls, we have to teach them a lesson and get back there with a majority and make sure their little coalition never happens.