Canadians appear poised to head to the polls for a spring election.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government has just days left to live after NDP Leader Jack Layton announced his party will not support Tuesday’s budget.
"The NDP will not be supporting the budget in its current form," Layton said, suggesting his party would be open to amendments.
But he said it is "difficult" to imagine there won’t be an election, saying that the Conservatives appear to have made up their mind on the budget.
Indeed, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty quickly rejected the idea of amending the budget to meet NDP demands, saying there was "no chance" of that happening.
The Liberals and Bloc Québécois had already announced their opposition to the fiscal blueprint even as Flaherty was presenting the document in the House of Commons.
"There’s nothing on affordable housing, there’s nothing on child care. This is a government that doesn’t seem to be listening to what Canadian families are telling us," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told reporters.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said the budget was "woefully inadequate."
Layton, who met with Harper to discuss the budget several weeks ago, said that the budget fell far short of his party’s demands to assist working families.
The rejection of the budget by all three opposition parties opened the way for days of political manoeuvring on Parliament Hill that could lead to the demise of the Harper government later this week or next -- with an election in May.
After debating the budget Wednesday, MPs could be presented with their first non-confidence vote on the budget as early as Thursday. However, because of possible procedural manoeuvring by the Conservatives, it’s not certain that a vote will take place that soon.
And, if there is no vote on the budget on Thursday, the next window for MPs to pass judgment on the economic blueprint will be next week. However, in the meantime, there is a possibility that the government might fall on a vote of non-confidence on ethical issues on Friday.
Harper can short-circuit these procedural developments at any time by going to see Governor General David Johnston and asking that Parliament be dissolved for an election. So far, however, the Conservatives have said they will wait to see how the non-confidence votes go in the Commons.
The budget was as much a political document as it was a fiscal blueprint, written with a nod to NDP demands while at the same time giving the Conservatives the makings of a campaign platform if it comes to an election.
It promises $150 million to help build a new highway in Canada’s Arctic and $228 million for bridge upgrades in Montreal, and it keeps alive the idea of a rail line linking Peterborough and Toronto.
There are modest new tax credits — for children’s arts activities, for family caregivers and even for volunteer firefighters. There’s even $27 million to improve weather forecasting in Canada, $25 million for Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre and funding to promote the Calgary Stampede and Grey Cup.
The budget sprinkled $2.3 billion in new spending over seniors, the unemployed, family caregivers and homeowners in a something-for-everybody message shaped by Ottawa’s political showdown.
While short on major new spending or tax initiatives, this year’s economic blueprint offers a smattering of social and economic assistance meant to stave off the defeat of the government or provide Harper with the basis of an election platform if the Conservatives fall from power.
In a direct appeal for support in Parliament from the NDP, the budget includes $530 million over two years in added support for low-income seniors, $400 million to extend the EcoEnergy home retrofit program and a modest $9-million-a-year plan to bring more doctors and nurses to rural communities.
These respond to the budget demands Layton laid out as the price of NDP support in upcoming Commons non-confidence votes.
The budget also promises "Helmets to Hardhats," a program to help veterans get work in the construction industry. This is a result of a direct appeal from Layton to Harper to implement such a program, a source told the Star.
The NDP’s other request to take the federal sales tax off home heating bill went unfulfilled. And Layton’s call to strengthen the Canada Pension Plans requires more discussions with the provinces, Flaherty said.
Flaherty said he had no idea how the NDP would react. While he was "conscious" of the ideas pitched by Layton and his party, he also made clear that "government makes the choices."
Flaherty has vowed to clamp down on spending to curb the $45-billion budget deficit now that Canada is leaving the economic recession behind. But on Tuesday, he played down the restraint message in favour of a wide shower of mostly small but politically attuned tax breaks and assistance programs.
