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Liberals narrowly avoid collapse

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal government narrowly won a confidence vote Thursday night, by one vote, after weeks of political turmoil. The deciding vote was cast by the speaker of the House in favor of the government, breaking a tie, resulting in 153 to 152 votes in support of the government's budget.

The vote followed weeks of political drama that had pitted the Liberals, accused of corruption, against opposition lawmakers eager for a chance to govern. Its outcome promises an uneasy truce between the country's political parties over the summer.

"The government respects the fact that the margin of tonight's vote was very narrow. Indeed that is an understatement, [but] we must move forward now in a spirit of cooperation," Paul Martin told parliament following the vote.

The confidence vote was the first test of support for a Canadian minority government since 1979 when former Prime Minister Joe Clark's Conservative government fell, also on a budget vote, only six months after being elected.

Had the vote not gone in the government's favor, it would have triggered a summer election that few Canadians wanted and might have unintentionally emboldened Quebec separatists.

"This was not just a budget vote. It was about a vision of Canada. It was about a perspective of the country," Martin told his caucus.

To secure the win, the prime minister recruited billionaire auto parts heiress and rookie Conservative politician Belinda Stronach only days before the vote.

Stronach gained a Cabinet post, but lost a boyfriend -- Conservative Deputy Leader Stephen Mackay who found out only a few hours before she announced her defection with a beaming PM at her side.

Independent MP Chuck Cadman also helped. He kept his decision secret until the very last moment, but sided with the government because, he said, constituents from his poor, rural electoral district in the western province of British Columbia needed the social benefits included in the budget.

Also, voters did not want an election now, he said.

The outcome, however, did nothing to dispel accusations of corruption that have dogged the Liberals in recent months.

The Liberals have weathered criticism that under the leadership of Martin's predecessor, Jean Chretien, they gave taxpayer money to advertising firms from 1995 to 2002 to promote federalism in Quebec, and that the firms then paid kickbacks to the Liberals.

Chretien testified at a judicial inquiry that the sponsorship program was necessary to curtail separatism and prevent the break-up of the country. His detractors called it the biggest government scandal in Canadian history.

So, it is ironic that due in part to the scandal, support for separatism in Quebec is on the rise for the first time in a decade.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper, who also drew the ire of some Canadians for having allied his party with the separatist Bloc Quebecois to try to bring down the government, hammered this point home by apologizing to Quebecers who might have felt slighted by efforts to buy their loyalty.

"As a federalist and an English Canadian, I am embarrassed and I profoundly regret that our parliament has decided this evening to maintain its confidence in a corrupt party," he said.
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