Canada in for elections as govt falls

Canada’s shaky minority Liberal government lost a vote of confidence 171-133 on Monday, ending a 17-month stay in office that was large...

Canada’s shaky minority Liberal government lost a vote of confidence 171-133 on Monday, ending a 17-month stay in office that was largely overshadowed by a patronage scandal.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, a former popular finance minister, took over as prime minister in December 2003 with hopes of spending a decade in power. But he ran into trouble in February 2004 when it was revealed that C$100 million in government advertising and sponsorship contracts had been funneled to Liberal-friendly firms for little or no work.

The opposition said the scandal—still one of the main driving forces in Canadian politics—was the main reason they pressed for a quick election. “We have to clean things up. We have a lot of cleaning up to do,” said Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

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Martin told supporters he would run on the government’s economic record.

The Liberals have been in power since 1993, when they inherited a C$42 billion budget deficit from the Conservatives. That deficit is long gone and unemployment is at a 30-year low. “We will be entering this campaign on a balance sheet we can be proud of….the result of the hard work and the good management of a Liberal government,” Martin said. —Reuters

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