Canada's Corruption Plagued Liberal Minority Government Survives Critical Vote

Belinda Stronach & Paul Martin

It took every ounce of political capital that Paul Martin could muster, but in the end it proved to be enough. Thanks to a last minute bribe to give former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach a cabinet seat to defect and a tie-breaking vote by the Speaker, the Liberals managed to squeak out a 153-152 win on a vote to support a massive new budget. The Liberals gave the New Democrats huge new federal spending and a suspension of business tax breaks in exchange for their votes. If the vote had failed, Martin would have had to ask the Governor-General to dissolve parliament and new elections would have been called. Instead, Canada will be shouldered with budget-busting social spending and no new economic stimulus, to say nothing of a corrupt and ineffectual minority government. Conservative Leader Steven Harper blamed the Liberals for their slimy tactics to secure the votes, but it was Harper who, in the face of the Gomery Inquiry and Martin's Liberals incompetence, still couldn't manage to bring down the worst government that Canada has seen in a generation. Read more here, here and here.