Liberals to table non-confidence motion Monday -- National Post

Are you ready for another potential Federal Election?

David Akin, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA -- The federal Liberal party will release the text Monday afternoon of its non-confidence motion that MPs will be expected to vote on Thursday.

The Liberals want to bring down Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government and force a general election but, to do that, MPs from all three opposition parties must vote in favour of the Liberal non-confidence motion. It appears, though, that the NDPwill stand with the government Thursday.

Brad Lavigne, the NDP's national director, appeared on television shows Sunday saying his party's first priority is to see government legislation that would extend the maximum amount of time some people can receive employment insurance benefits approved by the Commons. That legislation, the government says, would help about 190,000 people who are nearing the end of their benefit period.

Ralph Goodale, the Liberal MP from Saskatchewan and his party's House leader, said the motion to be tabled Monday will be unambiguous.

"We want to play this straightforward, very straight-up," Mr. Goodale said.

The motion could be as simple as "Be it Resolved that this House has no confidence in the government."

Confidence motions, though, are typically a little longer than that, with a pre-amble that sets out the reasons why the party proposing the motion does not have confidence in the government.

"This government cannot be trusted in terms of its numbers," Liberal MP David McGuinty said Monday morning after meeting with party leader Michael Ignatieff and his closest advisers.

The Bloc Quebecois has already indicated it will vote with the Liberals and against the government on Thursday's vote.

The Liberals believe they can score some political points at the NDP's expense and the wording of their confidence motion is part of the strategy to do just that.

The preamble in the Liberal confidence motion could, for example, indict the government for failing to act on some issues that are core parts of the NDP's agenda, such as more robust employment insurance reform.

Mr. Ignatieff said last week he does not want to give the NDP anywhere to "hide."

The timing of the confidence motion is connected to the release Monday of the government's third quarterly update on its economic stimulus plan.

In exchange for Liberal support last spring of the budget, the Conservatives agreed to table quarterly updates on some of the objectives and benchmarks outlined in the budget. As part of that Liberal-Conservative agreement last spring, both sides agreed that the Liberals would have the chance to introduce this confidence motion three days after the government tables this third report.

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