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lucky wilbury
05-02-2005, 11:38 PM
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-na/2005/may/02/050205388.html


New Week of Canada Government Spats Starts
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TORONTO (AP) -

Another wild week in Ottawa began Monday with a resumption of shouting matches in Parliament and a failed attempt to send a no-confidence vote to the floor, which could have toppled the government.

The opposition has been angling for a technical maneuver to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin, paralyzed for weeks by verbal brawls over a corruption scandal within his Liberal Party.

Conservative members of the Commons's public accounts committee put forward a motion Monday that called for the government to resign, hoping to push it before the 308-seat Commons for a vote. It failed 6-5 in committee, thus averting the long-awaited no-confidence motion yet another day.

"The people out there are wondering, what on earth is going on here," said Libby Davies, a New Democrat MP from Vancouver, whose party has joined forces with Martin's Liberal Party to block a no-confidence motion.

Martin has pleaded with his opponents to hold off on the motion and allow his 10-month administration remain in power until the federal budget is passed. That would kick in funds for national child- and health-care reform, and new military and defense spending.

Parliament was in recess last week, so both parties fanned out across the nation to sell themselves should a no-confidence motion pass, dissolving Parliament and giving candidates 36 days to prepare for elections.

Martin took the break to pledge nearly $635 million in federal spending for an array of new public works projects, the first phase of a national child-care program and new public housing for the poor.

Martin said Friday that none of the programs would come to fruition if he is toppled before the federal budget is approved by Parliament.

"We feel so strongly, along with Canadians, that the budget should pass and the election should not take place at this point," Martin said.

Martin also made a deal with New Democrats last week, pledging another $3.6 billion in social spending and a promise to delay billions in corporate tax cuts. In return, NDP leader Jack Layton pledged his 19 MPs in the 308-seat House of Commons to help prop up the Liberals.

The Liberals have 132 seats in the 308-seat Commons. The Conservatives have 99 seats and the separatist Bloc Quebecois - which have vowed to vote alongside the Conservatives - have 54 seats. That leaves one vacancy and three independents, whose votes could now make or break the outcome.

The merger between the NDP and Liberals has outraged the Conservatives. They called on Canada's finance minister to resign Monday, saying the Liberals should not be allowed to "cherry pick" the national treasury to make political mergers.

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