Those coalition government rumours came at the right time for Erin O'Toole

What should Canadians worry about more — the COVID-19 skeptics in the House of Commons or a theoretical governing arrangement that might eventually exist between the Liberals and NDP?

Facing persistent questions about the former, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole seems bent on redirecting attention toward the latter.

O'Toole used the word "coalition" 19 times during his six-and-a-half minute media statement on Monday, then another seven times on Tuesday as he announced his shadow cabinet — all to refer disparagingly to purported talks between the Liberals and NDP.

Words still have meanings, though, and a "coalition" government is a very specific thing: an arrangement in which two or more parties agree to govern together, typically with multiple parties represented in cabinet. Whatever Liberals and New Democrats have talked about over the past few weeks, it does not seem to have risen to that level.

What has been mused about in the media is something like a "confidence-and-supply" agreement. Under such arrangements, an opposition party agrees to support the government on specific measures under specific conditions, and to not vote to defeat the government for a period of time.

The Ontario Liberals and NDP signed such an accord in 1985. British Columbia's NDP government made a similar deal with the province's Greens in 2017.

But no such confidence and supply accord exists between the federal Liberals and NDP — not yet, at least. Though there are reports of loose chatter between Liberal and NDP officials, sources in both parties say there is no actual proposal on the table and no negotiations are happening.

Still, O'Toole's use of the c-word is likely meant to trigger memories of an actual coalition agreement that was signed by the Liberals and NDP in 2008. That coalition threatened to topple Stephen Harper's government and the Conservatives responded by claiming the arrangement was undemocratic.

The 2008 coalition had glaring weaknesses — notably the fact that the Bloc Quebecois had to be enlisted because the Liberals and NDP did not constitute a majority on their own. Three years later, Harper ran against the idea of a Liberal-NDP-BQ coalition and won a majority government.

O'Toole might be thinking that he can make a similar play now.

O'Toole was adamant that this fall's election should not have occurred when it did. Now, he is condemning one sort of arrangement that could ensure Parliament continues functioning. That might prompt questions about how exactly he would have Parliament work right now.

Conservatives probably would enjoy the freedom to oppose government legislation without fear of triggering an election. They might also feel free to criticize the idea of Liberal-NDP détente because there isn't another party in the House of Commons that a future Conservative minority government could or would make any kind of deal with.

But O'Toole likely is happy right now to have something other than his own caucus to talk about.

On Monday — after Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu told an interviewer that COVID-19 was less of a problem than polio — O'Toole was compelled to lament that some of his MPs had caused "confusion" with their recent comments on COVID-19 and vaccination.