PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—It wasn’t the way they wanted it to happen, but the Conservative government fell on Friday when a Liberal confidence motion carried in the House with the support of all opposition MPs.
The hours leading up to the vote that brought them down were bittersweet. Question period was its normally vicious partisan battle, but there was a respite for the cynics when MPs stood in praise of Speaker of the House Peter Milliken, a fixture in the House for the past decade.
Milliken—widely regarded as the most distinguished Speaker Canada has ever had—announced last year that he would not be running in the next general election.
Chosen as Speaker by both Liberal and Conservative governments, he has served as the official referee for the often-raucous debates in the House of Commons with the respect and admiration of all MPs, according to the praise lavished on him Friday.
And then the mudslinging began again.
The Conservatives had hoped to fall over a budget vote, thus fuelling their election narrative that the opposition cared more about an unnecessary election than the economy.
Instead, the government fell over a Liberal motion declaring the House agreed with a historic committee report that found the government in contempt of Parliament, thus fitting the opposition parties narrative that the Conservatives are autocratic and don’t respect parliamentary tradition.
Conservative MPs stood and shouted “Harper, Harper, Harper” as they took to their feet to register their votes against the motion.
A few minutes later, the results were in. The “Yeahs” had it by 11 votes—156 to 145. Back to the polls. Liberals and Bloc MPs tossed torn scraps of paper in the air like confetti, a House of Commons tradition.
Each of the leaders took their time at the microphone in the foyer outside the House following the vote, repeating the points they are likely to campaign on and answering, or ignoring, the questions they are likely to face again and again in the campaign to come.
Reporters had little else but one question for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff: Would he form a coalition if the election returns another Conservative minority. Although he faced the question several times, and declared he was making himself abundantly clear, Ignatieff refused to answer one way or another.
Instead, Ignatieff repeated what is likely to become a campaign mantra, that a vote for the Greens, NDP, or Bloc Quebecois is in fact a vote for the Conservatives. It was a step toward obscurity from his statement on Wednesday when he all but denied any possibility of a coalition, saying there was only a choice between the Conservatives and the Liberals.
“I am here to form a Liberal government with this incredibly talented caucus. That is the only game I am or will be playing,” he had declared.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, soon to only be referred to as the Conservative leader, will likely capitalize on that ambiguity during the campaign to allege that unless the Conservatives are returned with a majority, they will be quickly overturned by an opposition coalition.
On Friday, he focused his statements on the budget, saying the opposition parties chose an election that Canadians did not want rather than address ongoing economic concerns, adding that the global economy was still uncertain.
NDP leader Jack Layton, who has explicitly left the door open on a coalition, faced a direct question on his health, giving specific details about his cancer treatment for the first time thus far. He said he would soon be off his crutch, and his treatment was going well.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters Harper wanted an election and that is why the budget did little to address key concerns of his party and the other parties.
Harper told reporters he would visit the Governor General on Saturday to request that Parliament be dissolved and an election called.
The hours leading up to the vote that brought them down were bittersweet. Question period was its normally vicious partisan battle, but there was a respite for the cynics when MPs stood in praise of Speaker of the House Peter Milliken, a fixture in the House for the past decade.
Milliken—widely regarded as the most distinguished Speaker Canada has ever had—announced last year that he would not be running in the next general election.
Chosen as Speaker by both Liberal and Conservative governments, he has served as the official referee for the often-raucous debates in the House of Commons with the respect and admiration of all MPs, according to the praise lavished on him Friday.
And then the mudslinging began again.
The Conservatives had hoped to fall over a budget vote, thus fuelling their election narrative that the opposition cared more about an unnecessary election than the economy.
Instead, the government fell over a Liberal motion declaring the House agreed with a historic committee report that found the government in contempt of Parliament, thus fitting the opposition parties narrative that the Conservatives are autocratic and don’t respect parliamentary tradition.
Conservative MPs stood and shouted “Harper, Harper, Harper” as they took to their feet to register their votes against the motion.
A few minutes later, the results were in. The “Yeahs” had it by 11 votes—156 to 145. Back to the polls. Liberals and Bloc MPs tossed torn scraps of paper in the air like confetti, a House of Commons tradition.
Each of the leaders took their time at the microphone in the foyer outside the House following the vote, repeating the points they are likely to campaign on and answering, or ignoring, the questions they are likely to face again and again in the campaign to come.
Reporters had little else but one question for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff: Would he form a coalition if the election returns another Conservative minority. Although he faced the question several times, and declared he was making himself abundantly clear, Ignatieff refused to answer one way or another.
Instead, Ignatieff repeated what is likely to become a campaign mantra, that a vote for the Greens, NDP, or Bloc Quebecois is in fact a vote for the Conservatives. It was a step toward obscurity from his statement on Wednesday when he all but denied any possibility of a coalition, saying there was only a choice between the Conservatives and the Liberals.
“I am here to form a Liberal government with this incredibly talented caucus. That is the only game I am or will be playing,” he had declared.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, soon to only be referred to as the Conservative leader, will likely capitalize on that ambiguity during the campaign to allege that unless the Conservatives are returned with a majority, they will be quickly overturned by an opposition coalition.
On Friday, he focused his statements on the budget, saying the opposition parties chose an election that Canadians did not want rather than address ongoing economic concerns, adding that the global economy was still uncertain.
NDP leader Jack Layton, who has explicitly left the door open on a coalition, faced a direct question on his health, giving specific details about his cancer treatment for the first time thus far. He said he would soon be off his crutch, and his treatment was going well.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters Harper wanted an election and that is why the budget did little to address key concerns of his party and the other parties.
Harper told reporters he would visit the Governor General on Saturday to request that Parliament be dissolved and an election called.
