PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—Election speculation continued on Wednesday after House Speaker Peter Milliken ruled that the government appeared to have twice breached the rights of MPs.
Milliken ruled there was a “prima facie breach of privilege” meaning there was enough evidence for the matters to be sent back to MPs for a detailed look.
One breach relates to embattled Minister of International Co-Operation Bev Oda who ordered a document signed by her and senior CIDA officials altered so that an approval for funding for Christian aid group Kairos was reversed by the addition of a handwritten “not.”
The second breach was the government invoking parliamentary privilege to retain documents detailing the costs of its anti-crime initiatives.
Milliken noted previous rulings enshrined the power of the House of Commons to request documents from the government.
“There’s no doubt the order to produce documents is not being fully complied with, and this is a serious matter that goes to the heart of the House’s undoubted role in holding the government to account,” he said.
Parliament Hill watchers have been discussing for months what would eventually trigger an election given that the Liberals and Conservatives seem to be in a deadlock over corporate tax rates, which the Conservatives lowered in a previous budget and the Liberals say must be kept at previous levels to compensate for budget shortfalls.
Much of the speculation has centred on the idea that the Liberals would try to topple the government over an accountability issue like the breach-of-privilege rulings so it could frame the election as a response to the government’s disregard for Parliament.
But comments from Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Wednesday afternoon show the Liberals may be willing to vote against the budget, which would frame the election as a battle over economic platforms, a relative strong point for Conservative support.
That may be because the Liberals are saying that their understanding of the Speaker’s ruling is that he would not allow a confidence motion over the privilege issue, or it may be because they see a strong election case to be made based on what they expect in the budget.
It could also be simply an issue of timing. The earliest the Liberals could move a non-confidence motion is March 21st, on the eve of the budget’s release.
“It’s the day before budget day. Whatever happens here, look, wherever we go with this, Canadians will be asked to make a judgement about whether these people are competent economic managers and they’ll also be asked the simple question do you trust this Prime Minister with power?”
Ignatieff told reporters he would read the budget before deciding.
Deputy NDP leader Thomas Mulcair made similar comments, saying the NDP also wants to see what will be in the budget and if any of their demands were met, including dropping taxes on heating fuel.
“The budget is scheduled for the 22nd. That’s where we can find out if the Conservatives have been listening to the series of things that the NDP has put on the table—for example, helping impoverished seniors who right now can’t even pay their home heating bills because of the increase in the cost of the oil, for example,” Mulcair said.
“For the NDP it’s always been a priority to try to get results for people rather than push headlong for the next election campaign. And we’ll find out whether the Conservatives are going to be listening to us or not on that important issue.”
