Post by Brandon Rhea on Nov 29, 2005 2:33:36 GMT
From Yahoo! News:
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's embattled Liberal minority government was ousted by a no-confidence vote in Parliament, kicking off a likely frosty election campaign over the Christmas holiday.
Canada's three opposition parties, who had threatened for months to topple the government amid acrimonious exchanges in the House of Commons over Liberal Party corruption allegations, voted 171 to 133 to force an election.
Voters are likely go to the polls either January 16 or January 23, 2006.
Three Canadian minority governments were previously felled by no-confidence votes, but Martin's Liberals were the first ever to fall on a stand-alone censure motion.
The motion comes after Martin rejected an opposition ultimatum to promise to dissolve Parliament in January.
He had instead pledged to call an election in March or April, 30 days after the release of a final report on a government funding scandal involving the previous Liberal government.
But New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton withdrew his crucial support for the Liberals soon after the release of a damning preliminary report on the scandal in early November.
The Liberals are accused of receiving kickbacks from advertising firms awarded millions of dollars in government contracts from 1995 to 2002, during the government of then-prime minister Jean Chretien, to counter a separatist movement in the French-speaking province of Quebec.
Martin was finance minister at the time, but was exonerated by a judicial inquiry. Still, the scandal cost the Liberals a fourth consecutive majority government last year.
Most now predict another Liberal minority government, including two of Canada's most influential conservative leaders, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and former Prime Minister Joe Clark whose government was the last to be forced out in 1979 and face a winter election.
But with the Conservatives close behind in opinion polls, the last days of Martin's Liberal government have been marked by threats of lawsuits and ugly rhetoric that has pundits predicting the most vicious election campaign in the country's history.
Already, the Liberals have threatened to sue Conservative members of Parliament for "false smears" that linked the party to organized crime, while Liberals slung mud themselves.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper called the Liberals "a party named in a judicial inquiry" and "found guilty of breaking every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime."
Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri shot back, calling the Conservatives "narrow, angry people" who offered "half truths and innuendo" and would reverse decades of progress in Canada "in the name of some right-wing ideology."
Both sides predicted worse to come.
Valeri also blasted the Conservatives for collaborating with the separatist Bloc Quebecois to bring down the government while others peddled insults such as "sleazebag" and "anti-immigrant" to describe their opponents.
With separatist sentiment on the rise again in Quebec, in part because of the Liberal scandal, federalists fear being locked out of the province.
Meanwhile, the Liberals went on a frantic last-minute spending spree to prop up their support. Ministers appeared in every corner of the country, in even the smallest communities, making over 40 announcements in the past week to spend more than 20 billion Canadian dollars (17 billion US) on farmers, culture and arts, transit security, fisheries, forestry, aboriginals and more.
Opposition leaders quickly denounced them as taxpayer-funded electioneering.
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Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's embattled Liberal minority government was ousted by a no-confidence vote in Parliament, kicking off a likely frosty election campaign over the Christmas holiday.
Canada's three opposition parties, who had threatened for months to topple the government amid acrimonious exchanges in the House of Commons over Liberal Party corruption allegations, voted 171 to 133 to force an election.
Voters are likely go to the polls either January 16 or January 23, 2006.
Three Canadian minority governments were previously felled by no-confidence votes, but Martin's Liberals were the first ever to fall on a stand-alone censure motion.
The motion comes after Martin rejected an opposition ultimatum to promise to dissolve Parliament in January.
He had instead pledged to call an election in March or April, 30 days after the release of a final report on a government funding scandal involving the previous Liberal government.
But New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton withdrew his crucial support for the Liberals soon after the release of a damning preliminary report on the scandal in early November.
The Liberals are accused of receiving kickbacks from advertising firms awarded millions of dollars in government contracts from 1995 to 2002, during the government of then-prime minister Jean Chretien, to counter a separatist movement in the French-speaking province of Quebec.
Martin was finance minister at the time, but was exonerated by a judicial inquiry. Still, the scandal cost the Liberals a fourth consecutive majority government last year.
Most now predict another Liberal minority government, including two of Canada's most influential conservative leaders, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and former Prime Minister Joe Clark whose government was the last to be forced out in 1979 and face a winter election.
But with the Conservatives close behind in opinion polls, the last days of Martin's Liberal government have been marked by threats of lawsuits and ugly rhetoric that has pundits predicting the most vicious election campaign in the country's history.
Already, the Liberals have threatened to sue Conservative members of Parliament for "false smears" that linked the party to organized crime, while Liberals slung mud themselves.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper called the Liberals "a party named in a judicial inquiry" and "found guilty of breaking every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime."
Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri shot back, calling the Conservatives "narrow, angry people" who offered "half truths and innuendo" and would reverse decades of progress in Canada "in the name of some right-wing ideology."
Both sides predicted worse to come.
Valeri also blasted the Conservatives for collaborating with the separatist Bloc Quebecois to bring down the government while others peddled insults such as "sleazebag" and "anti-immigrant" to describe their opponents.
With separatist sentiment on the rise again in Quebec, in part because of the Liberal scandal, federalists fear being locked out of the province.
Meanwhile, the Liberals went on a frantic last-minute spending spree to prop up their support. Ministers appeared in every corner of the country, in even the smallest communities, making over 40 announcements in the past week to spend more than 20 billion Canadian dollars (17 billion US) on farmers, culture and arts, transit security, fisheries, forestry, aboriginals and more.
Opposition leaders quickly denounced them as taxpayer-funded electioneering.
