MrBishop
Well-Known Member
SourceOTTAWA (CP) - The opposition parties introduced a historic motion on Thursday, declaring that the House of Commons has lost confidence in the minority Liberal government.
A vote on the non-confidence motion is expected Monday, with the collapse of the government and a subsequent election campaign all but certain. If the government expires, the motion will offer a succinct epitaph: "That this House has lost confidence in the government." To ensure the support of the other opposition parties, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper chose a drastically watered-down version of a dramatic motion he originally prepared, which cited corruption and scandal.
The terse version Harper tabled has the support of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, and their combined votes would easily overpower the Liberals.
Harper stressed the sponsorship scandal and Liberal arrogance in his speech supporting the motion.
"The Liberal party has no desire to change, no intention to change, and no ability to change," he told the Commons.
"(This election) will be a choice between old-style politics and sweeping new reforms. It will be a choice between the culture of entitlement and corruption and a culture of accountability and achievement."
It is widely expected that upon losing the vote, Prime Minister Paul Martin will ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean on Tuesday to dissolve Parliament and set an election date for Jan. 16 or 23.
Such a move would mean an unusually long campaign of seven or eight weeks, possibly with a brief pause for Christmas and New Year's.
The Liberals lost the support of the Tories and Bloc Quebecois months ago because of the sponsorship scandal, and the New Democrats recently said they had given up on the Grits because of differences over health care.
Instead of scandal, NDP Leader Jack Layton focused his speech on condemnation of the Liberals for a series of alleged policy failures over 12 years.
He cited increases in private health care, green-house gas emissions and smog, a drop in foreign-aid levels, and a retreat from Canada's traditional role as a world leader in peacekeeping.
Layton said the smog season now runs from February to October while the Liberals failed to deliver a viable plan to meet Canada's targets under the Kyoto accord.
"Twelve years say their words don't match their deeds. Enough is enough," he said.
Layton did spend part of his speech attacking Liberal ethics and blasted the government for failing to place adequate restrictions on the lobbying industry.
But Harper devoted a much larger portion of his speech to the sponsorship scandal.
He said the current prime minister must be held accountable for the disappearance of millions of taxpayer dollars under the national-unity scheme.
He noted that Martin was finance minister and present at the 1996 cabinet meeting that set up the sponsorship program, which attempted to increase the visibility of Canada and the Liberal party in Quebec.
Harper cited Justice John Gomery's report on the scandal, which declared that confusing Canada's interests with those of the Liberal party was an affront to basic democratic values.
"This prime minister should have known better," Harper said.
"He cannot get away with saying, 'Don't blame me. I was only the piano player. I had no idea what was going on upstairs"'
Criminal charges have been laid against several people in the scandal and the government has asked the RCMP to investigate further.
But no one has gone to jail for the theft of millions of taxpayer dollars, Harper said.
"The Liberal culture of entitlement goes on. The public must be given a chance to put it to an end," he said.
"As long as the guilty power remains . . . in office, nobody will ever be held truly responsible, nobody will ever be firmly punished and no real reforms will ever be made."
A Martin spokesman took aim at Harper and pointed out that the prime minister was exonerated in Gomery's report.
"Mr. Harper has taken to manufacturing facts to fit his tirade of venom," said Martin spokesman Scott Reid.
The government appeared resigned to its fate on Thursday.
With Ottawa huddling under its first snowstorm of the year, there were evident signs of a rare winter election approaching.
Moving vans carried furniture to Liberal party headquarters as party officials arrived at the office as early as 5 a.m. to set up their election war room.
If Liberals were resigned to losing the confidence vote, they were anything but timid about who deserves to win the election.
They will attempt to shift focus away from the sponsorship scandal during the campaign and draw attention to the strong economy.
House Leader Tony Valeri set the stage for that campaign by touting a positive message of economic growth.
He cited eight straight balanced federal budgets, the lowest interest rates in a generation, and the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years.
"The opposition calls it arrogance. Canadians call it achievement," Valeri said.
"We will work to make the best country in the world even better. The world . . . has seen the meaning of hope, and it's Canada. "The world has seen the future and it's Canada. We will not let it be turned backward in the name of some right-wing ideology put forward by narrow, angry people."
Looks like we're going to be going back to the polls right after Christmas. Oh joy!
I like Premier Martin's statments about Canada being the greatest country on Earth
