[CANADA] Opposition lines up against government; government expected to fall Friday

[Very_Boring_Name]

Source: CBC

With the government unwilling to amend its budget, all three opposition leaders said they are prepared to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government on a motion of non-confidence Friday.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday his party would introduce the motion later in the day and NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe both said they would support it.

== ==

Ignatieff said the motion is focused on the contempt issue but that the Liberals also reject the government's management of the economy and its spending choices, and he expects that to be a main issue in an election campaign.
Text of Liberal motion

The Liberals will table this motion Wednesday, with a vote expected on Friday:

"This government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons of Canada on its economic agenda, that's what happened," said Ignatieff, surrounded by MPs from his caucus. "We will fight them on the economy and we will win on the economy."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/03/23/pol-leaders-politics.html

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Harper was a huge Bush ally. His government was also ruled in contempt of parliament for refusing to turn over documents related to the cost of 58 fighter jets that the conservatives purchased. It will be nice to see this asshole get knocked out.

[Lasher]

1. Harper's trying to join the global ideological jihad against the middle class.

Here's hoping this is his Waterloo.

[Iliyah]

4. The Canadians

stopped him from over turning "Fair Doctrine" and therefore Canadian media remains in tact per se, unlike here in America where anybody ca spew as much vitriolic lies and hatred with no accountability, ie, fake news, rushiepoo, beckiepoo, palinpoo and the rest.

[glinda]

13. and a good thing x a billion

[rurallib]

2. I may not be well informed on Canadian politics but (question)

Don't the Conservatives win with a minority when the liberal parties split their votes among 3 parties?
If so, will the liberals kill themselves yet again in an election?

[Very_Boring_Name]

5. Not necessarily

The conservatives and the liberal party (the main left wing party) are usually statistically very close in the polls. Harper won in 2006 due to a huge scandal involving the ruling liberals (the sponsership scandal), plus people were getting tired of the liberals, who had been in power for almost 15 years. In 2008, harper won because the liberals ran an absolutely terrible candidate who was completely out of his league when it came to defending himself against slanderous lies from the right. Both times his popular vote margins were very very thin (there were literally a dozen+ ridings where the conservatives won by 1 or 2 percent)

Vote splitting hurts, for sure. But it's no guarantee that the conservatives will win. Plus, there have been some pretty effective campaigns on the left during the past few elections that encouraged strategic voting (if you are a liberal, but live in a riding where it is unlikely the liberal will win, vote for the candidate most likely to beat the conservatives). Strategic voting arguably denied Harper a majority last election.

[applegrove]

17. Good question. With the bloc in control of Quebec, the liberals would

have to win about 65% of the vote in any election to win a minority. Which they cannot do. They could win a minority though.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

3. iirc, when Harper took office, it was heralded as the first

of the conservative wave that was going to sweep the world. First in, First out. Garbage in, garbage out.

[juxtaposed]

6. tide goes in, tide goes out

[glinda]

14. lol

[No Elephants]

12. From your keyboard to God's (or Whomever's) ears.

[iandhr]

7. Last time this happened

Harper increased his seats partly because Dion was a idiot. Whats Ignatieff like I do not know much about him.

[George1984]

8. Ignatieff is a clown

He does not represent me, even though I consider myself a left side of the aisle kind of guy. Alas the difference between the Liberals and the PC here is small. Another $300 million wasted on a vote, that will once again give us a minority government that accomplishes nothing.

[Very_Boring_Name]

9. The difference between the Liberals and the PC is small?

Typical NDP talking point. Oh, and there's no such thing as the PC party anymore.

[George1984]

11. My apologies oh great one

Not sure what politics you follow, but the Liberals of today are further right, and the PC's or as they now call themselves ' the Conservatives' have a come a little left to try and swing out of their minority the last few elections. Take your condescension and your 'typical' NDP talking points and cram them. I am not a No Down Payment party member, nor would I ever vote for them.

[SfromCanada]

22. The difference is small.

The people voted out the liberals because of the corruption. They voted in the tories and got more corruption. It's a revolving door between the two.

[Darth_Kitten]

19. No, he's a very intelligent man....

n/t

[Baclava]

10. C'est la vie

It's playoff hockey time, get on with it.

[Dawson Leery]

15. What are the chances of a Lib/NDP/BLOC coalition?

[socialshockwave]

16. Slim to none.

The Bloc is a Quebec nationalist party(they want Quebec to become their own country - or, did), while the Liberals are conservatives in sheep's clothing and the NDP are the "progressive" party.

They tried it once, but it died off as Michael Ignatieff(who considers himself more American then Canadian) refused to go along with it after the previous Liberal leader, Stephan Dion, resigned.

[Very_Boring_Name]

18. the bloc is poison to mainstream canadian politicians

a liberal/ndp coalition is possible with outside support from the bloc though.

[Overseas]

20. K&R!

Exciting news.

[Bragi]

21. Vote strategically to defeat Harper!

I'm in an NDP riding, so I will vote NDP to make sure the Conservatives don't win this seat.

If I was in a riding where the Liberals had the best shot at defeating the Conservatives, then that's how I would vote.

My rationale -- I am quite left of all the parties, but I think the big job here is to get rid of Harper.