[LINK] "Canada govt survives as opposition coalition dies"

[rfmcdonald]

Reuters lets us know the Liberal Party's reaction to the budget.

Canada's Conservative Party looked set to continue in power for the near term at least on Wednesday after an opposition coalition that sought to replace the minority government collapsed.

The main opposition Liberal Party announced its conditional support for the government's 2009 budget and economic stimulus plan, allowing the Conservatives to survive, and killing off the opposition parties' plan to install a coalition government.

"The coalition is dead, it's finished, it's over," said Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, one of the three parties that had signed an agreement last month to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government at the first opportunity.

The coalition idea had proved unpopular with the electorate and the cash-strapped Liberals appeared unwilling to risk the alternative, a fourth election in five years, if they brought down the government, which was just reelected in October.

"Canadians don't want another election, and they're tired of political games," the new Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, told a news conference. He said the government's deficit-laden budget, released on Tuesday, responded to the needs of the present.

"What (Canadians) want from me is political action that shows a sense of responsibility and I'm trying to do that," Ignatieff said.

He said he would present an amendment to the main budget motion on Wednesday afternoon requiring the government to report back on its budget implementation in March, June and December.

A transcript of Ignatieff's remarks is available here while more on NDP leader Jack Layton's reaction ("We have a new coalition now on Parliament Hill -- it's a coalition between Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff") is here

I tend to agree with Norman Spector's reaction to Ignatieff's qualified support for the Conservatives' budget.

With some economists predicting that we could be heading into the worst recession since the Great Depression, the equation for the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition should have been simple. Either the policies contained in the Conservative budget are adequate to deal with the situation, in which case Mr. Ignatieff should support them and, on behalf of Canadians, wish the government good luck and mean it. Or they are not, in which case he should be proposing amendments to improve the package or voting straight away to defeat the government and replace it.

At this morning's press conference, he did neither, and, in the process, came off as a man lacking in conviction and too-clever-by half -the typical scheming politician who puts the interest of his party ahead of the interest of the nation. He is now a target for the ire of his erstwhile coalition partners. Whether he will also suffer in the estimation of Canadians remains to be seen.