OTTAWA – If there is a fall election, it is Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s fault, NDP leader Jack Layton said Thursday.

Layton said it is up to Harper to negotiate with opposition parties in order for Canadians to avoid another trip to the polls.

The NDP, Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois would not be responsible for triggering an election, Layton said.

“The choice is yours Mr. Harper,” he said.

Canadians elected a minority government and that means it is up to the Tories to work with other parties to find “common ground,” Layton said.

The NDP leader said he is ready to work with the Conservative government on a number of the party’s key issues: reforms to employment insurance, pensions and credit card regulation.

Speaking in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Harper said he would not be making any “backroom deals” to save his government.

He said Canadians, last December, didn’t like the NDP-Bloc Quebecois-Liberal coalition and he wouldn’t go “there.”

But the prime minister said he might look at opposition proposals.

“If other parties have useful, good, effective, affordable ideas on the economy, let us see what they are and we will take a look at them,” Harper said.

althia.raj@sunmedia.ca