OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is quashing rumours of a survival pact with the separatist Bloc Quebecois as he calls for greater co-operation with opposition parties to help Canada weather the recession.

Amid another round of election speculation, Harper said if countries as diverse as the U.S., Saudi Arabia, China and Russia can work to a common goal of improving the economy, then so should Canadian political parties in the House of Commons.

Harper said he will listen to any elected MP, but dismissed talk of an alliance to avoid an election as “absolutely untrue.” “The Bloc Quebecois stands for the break-up of this country. We will not govern this country in a pact or arrangement with the Bloc Quebecois,” he said. “There is no contemplation of that, let alone possibility.”

With rival Liberals surging in the polls and beefing up their campaign war chest, some Grits are itching for an early trip to the polls. But Harper said Canadians don’t want another election, and accused Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff of keeping an “on-again, off-again” coalition with the NDP and Bloc alive.

“What we’re looking for from Mr. Ignatieff and the other parties is obviously opportunity to work together to advance the interests of the country,” he said. “Rather than this kind of partisanship, people should be seeking ways that we could work together to advance our shared interests in this time of recession.”

Ignatieff insisted he’s in no rush to fight an election, throwing the ball in the Conservatives’ court.

“It takes two to tango here and at some point it will become difficult to make a minority Parliament work,” he told CTV from the Liberal convention in Vancouver. “And at that point we’ll say let’s get the boss to sort this out, and the boss is the Canadian people.”

kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca