Our secret correspondent has learned that embattled Prime Minister Steven Harper’s request for a “timeout” was accepted by the Governor General because of his provocative “fingers crossed behind my back” argument. As Harper explained to her while wearing his favorite blue sweater, “in regards to this whole confidence thing, the video will clearly show that everything I did and didn’t say about things like the ‘economy’ happened while my hand was placed firmly behind my back. I can assure you that, at the time, my fingers were indeed crossed. Furthermore, at no time did I say ‘black ball beats them all, stampsies no erasies’, thus there is no reason not to have confidence in what I really didn’t mean, and every reason to give us a ‘do over’.” According to our sources, this argument overcame Dion’s original “liar, liar, pants and fire” position, in addition to his last-ditch effort at a “we’re rubber and you’re glue” rebuttal.