So Canada’s conservative government has brought down a budget, eight weeks after Parliament was prorogued to prevent a new Liberal-NDP coalition government being formed.
The NDP and the Bloc have clearly stated that they will vote against the budget, and have been joined by the Newfoundland premier Danny Williams, who actively campaigned against Harper at the 2008 election. The new Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, is yet to announce whether his party will support the budget, and will make an announcement at about 3am AEDT. If the Liberals decide to vote against the budget, Harper will attempt to call an early election, with the alternative being a new Liberal minority government or Liberal-NDP coalition government.
Wondering whether I should stay up…
Nah. The real action will happen later in the day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090128.wPOLbudget0128/BNStory/politics/home
Liberals will support the budget as long as the Tories give “progress updates” on the stimulus plans. Bit of a weak amendment. I don’t know how clever a move this is by Ignatieff. The Liberals look at risk of being wedged between the Conservatives and the NDP.
It would appear that Ignatieff isn’t as keen on becoming Prime Minister as Dion was.
I think that’s part of the story. First of all, last year’s gambit was Dion’s only shot at becoming PM, whereas Ignatieff has a while before his time is up, even if he were to lose the next election.
Secondly, the Liberals must be deathly afraid of another election. They have little money and are broken after the last election. The NDP would probably gain ground, and the BQ would probably stay steady (they don’t have much room to grow), but the Conservatives might get that majority they’ve been after, which would lock in a more powerful Harper government until 2013. It’s not that likely that a no-confidence vote would result in an election, but it’s possible, and would be much more likely if the Liberal-NDP coalition broke apart, in which case the Conservative opposition would likely succeed in getting an election called, which they would likely win.
As another point, the Liberals would undoubtedly prefer to govern alone, with NDP and BQ support from the crossbenches, rather than the Liberal-NDP coalition preferred by the NDP and BQ. I reckon Ignatieff was negotiating with the other parties behind the scenes, and they were yet to come to an agreement. Ignatieff’s statement suggests he’s leaving open the possibility of voting the government out, but will not be willing to give as much power to the NDP as Dion was.
Let Harper foul his own nest and dont worry he will!!!!! Go the NDP and the Canadian Greens!!!!!
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