Not only is team Liberal falling apart, but now Team Martin/Layton appears to be falling apart. So team Liberal-Left is falling apart, while the Conservatives lead in the polls and raise twice as much so far this year as the Liberals.
Usually Mondays are such a drag!
NDP withdraws support for Liberals; Christmas campaign possible, but unlikely
TORONTO (CP) – The once-distant prospect of a Christmas election campaign edged suddenly into the realm of the possible Monday as New Democrat Leader Jack Layton threatened to withdraw his party’s support for Paul Martin’s precarious Liberal minority.
The Liberals refused to accept the NDP’s proposals to stop the privatization of medicare, while the Gomery report into the sponsorship scandal damaged the trust Canadians have in their political institutions, Layton said in a luncheon speech at a downtown Toronto hotel.
“We are no longer able to express confidence in this government in the context of the Gomery findings and in the context of their rejection of any serious action to protect our public health-care system,” Layton said after his speech.
“We will not be supporting the government in a confidence motion when it comes forward.”
With the possibility of a non-confidence motion coming forward as early as Nov. 15, the prospect of an election between Christmas and New Year suddenly emerged as a distinct possibility.
But mindful of offending voters, none of Prime Minister Paul Martin’s political rivals was willing to commit to introducing the non-confidence motion that could plunge Canadians into their first holiday campaign in 25 years.
“We certainly don’t want to see Canadians inconvenienced in their holiday period by having to have an election during that period,” said Layton. “I don’t think anybody would want to see that happen and there’s no reason why it would need to happen.”
For his part, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper appeared to challenge Layton to introduce the non-confidence motion, likening the NDP leader’s hotly anticipated speech to another episode in a long-running soap opera.
“You watch it every day, and nothing changes,” Harper said in Montreal.
“We’re prepared to bring down the government, but he’ll have to contact us and indicate how he intends to do that.”
[…]
The dithering Layton has been sending out mixed signals recently as he and his socialist comrades are clearly about as out of touch with Canadians as the dithering, fumbling, corrupt Liberals. This sentence in the story exemplifies the Layton/NDP dithering:
But in his speech, Layton said Canadians should not have to wait more months to pass judgment on the Liberals.
We’ve all been saying that for a long time, Mr. Layton. You’ve been saying largely the opposite.
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