liberals to hold off on election until they think they can w

Liberals won't force federal election until they can win: Campaign chair

By Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stephane Dion says his Liberals will not force an election over the federal budget. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

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OTTAWA - Stephane Dion sported a pink tie Wednesday to mark anti-bullying day but that didn't stop his rivals from ganging up on the perceived weakling in the federal political playground.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe took turns rubbing the Liberal leader's nose in the dirt, mocking him openly for running away from an election fight over the latest federal budget.

But Senator David Smith, co-chairman of the Liberals' national campaign team, said Dion won't be goaded into forcing an election until he's sure his party can win.

"He wants to go when he feels we're in the best position to win," Smith bluntly told reporters.

"It's a strategic decision. We're not going to just hand them an election on a silver platter when they want it."

A number of Liberals said the most likely trigger for a winning election will come if it becomes clear that the Tories' fiscal policies are about to push the country's books back into the red - a development some predicted could come within a few months.

After meeting with his caucus, not all of whom are happy with the decision, Dion reiterated that Liberals will not support the budget, but they won't bring down the minority Conservative government over it either. Precisely how they'll proceed Dion dismissed as a matter of "tactics," but Liberal insiders expect MPs will be instructed to abstain on the series of budget votes, as they did on key confidence matters throughout the fall.

"We'll choose our time, we'll choose our issues to go to election and to win it," Dion said.

Later Wednesday, Liberals in the Senate eliminated another possible election trigger, allowing the government's omnibus crime bill to pass by a vote of 19-16. Most Liberal senators abstained. Harper had threatened to call an election if the Senate didn't approve the bill by Mar. 1.

Dion has also struck a tentative deal with Harper to extend the military mission in Afghanistan to 2011, all but guaranteeing the government will survive a confidence vote on that matter next month.

Liberals introduced Wednesday an amendment to the budget motion, carefully crafted to avoid inadvertently winning the support of other parties and, thereby, toppling the government.

The amendment lauds the budget for containing "some initiatives that attempt to mirror sound and intelligent Liberal policy proposals." But it also expresses regret that the government "has made significant economic policy mistakes over the past two years and shown an NDP-like lack of fiscal prudence that prevent it from dealing with a downturn in the Canadian economy."

The first budget vote, slated for Thursday, is on a Bloc sub-amendment, which slams the budget for failing to adequately help workers in the ailing forestry and manufacturing sectors and for failing to transfer billions to the provinces for post-secondary education. A vote on the Liberal amendment will follow on Monday.

In the Commons, Dion boasted that the Liberals left the federal treasury overflowing with surpluses, which the Tories have "managed to ruin in two years" with reckless spending and deep tax cuts. He attacked the budget for leaving the country perilously close to a deficit as the economy heads into stormy weather.

Harper showed little gratitude for the fact that he owes the survival of his budget - and his government - to Dion.

"Let me just say to the leader of the Opposition, when he comes and makes ferocious attacks on a budget he has every intention of allowing to pass, he simply has no credibility in those attacks," Harper said.

When Dion gamely persevered with criticism of the government's climate change plan, Harper shot back that Dion endorsed the plan in last fall's throne speech, on which Liberals also abstained. And he caustically advised Dion that he should have watched comedian Rick Mercer's popular television show on Tuesday night.

Mercer skewered the Liberals' refusal to defeat the budget with a spoof of a glitzy campaign-style ad, in which a party spokesman variously declares: "We're backing down and loving it . . . We give up . . . Be on notice Stephen Harper, your free ride is about to continue."

Outside the Commons, Layton and Duceppe piled on.

Layton said Dion's criticisms of the budget are meaningless given that he intends to let it pass.

"Any comment that he makes now to try and create some sound and fury signifies nothing."

Duceppe scoffed that Liberals aren't standing up for what they profess to believe in.

"They don't walk the talk . . . and people will judge that when election time will come."

The mockery was a bitter pill for some Liberals to swallow, especially those who had wanted Dion to pull the plug on the government.

Toronto-area MP Garth Turner admitted it's "definitely hard" to listen to Harper ridicule Dion after the Liberal leader has given the government "such a level of co-operation" on Afghanistan and the budget.

"I think it was, you know, unfortunate, sad, a measure of the guy and he's certainly putting his stick in our eye."

While he'd have preferred an election now, Turner predicted that it will be clear by September whether the country is sliding back into a deficit and "absolutely, that would trigger an election in my view."

During the closed caucus meeting earlier Wednesday, sources said reaction was mixed to Dion's decision not to defeat the government over the budget. A number of MPs from Atlantic Canada, where their seats are safe, were particularly upset about changes to Employment Insurance that they fear will hurt their region.

While most MPs seemed content to wait for a more propitious moment to force an election, insiders said there's considerable frustration - "bordering on apoplexy," in the words of one senior Liberal - that the party's campaign team is still not ready to fight an election.

Smith said the party is ready but conceded: "Will we be more ready every week? Yes."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008 ... 08-cp.html

and when do they think they can win with dion is leader ?

so guess this might be a long wait and in the meantime harper basically has a majority . as latest poll had cpc 7 % ahead of the liberals .

so the current polls aren't telling the liberals to get their act together, but if the polls show that they can win, then they plan on taking down a functioning party?

Oh no! An election is potentially being put off because a party is waiting for the time they can win.

I mean, it's not like every government before it has done that.

Beware that there is a substitute out here.
Same but with a different face.

1. Harpers cabinet is staffed by ex-Mulroney staffers. His policies can very easily be confused with Harpers because he has the same architects at work.

2. Cadman issue is a pox two ways on Harper: 1) he either has no real control over or his staffers are so green as to offer such an obviously illegal bribe or 2) his intent and motivation was exactly the same as Martins when he offered Belinda to come on board for the exact same vote. Either way, not good and certainly not legal or ethical.

3. It wasn't Obamas staff that leaked something on diplomatic background. That was Wilson. You know the former finance minister Mulroney staffer? See point 1.

4. Law and order isn't an issue? Have you voted before?

1. Harpers cabinet is staffed by ex-Mulroney staffers.

what are their names?

 His policies can very easily be confused with Harpers because he has the same architects at work.

which policies?

2. Cadman issue is a pox two ways on Harper: 1) he either has no real control over or his staffers are so green as to offer such an obviously illegal bribe or 2) his intent and motivation was exactly the same as Martins when he offered Belinda to come on board for the exact same vote. Either way, not good and certainly not legal or ethical.

which on is it? or are you going to wait for Dion to tell you?

3. It wasn't Obamas staff that leaked something on diplomatic background. That was Wilson. You know the former finance minister Mulroney staffer? See point 1.

4. Law and order isn't an issue? Have you voted before?

How many times have you voted?

Curious Scape.

Will you acknowledge right now that every Trudeau, Turner, Martin, Chretien hack that still hangs around the Liberals and any scandal a potential future opposition can associate with them no matter how many decades back is the direct responsibility of the Liberal Party today whether they know about it or not?

Do you hereby swear that Dion should be held responsible for any questionable conduct outed while he is leader?

That is possible, but the sediment is even more profound when the people who were around at the time then are the same people that are now put back in to position of power and influence once again. Dion is not in power, Harper is. Who would you suggest Dion have as a part of his cabinet?