OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says there can be no more profound cause for an election than the protection of democracy.
The minority government of Stephen Harper is set to fall this afternoon on a Liberal confidence motion, triggering a May election that Conservatives say is unnecessary and reckless.
The Liberal motion cites the government for contempt of Parliament — an unprecedented development in any Commonwealth country.
Commons Speaker Peter Milliken and an opposition-dominated committee have already found a case for contempt, and the Liberals have ensured that’s the trigger for the fall of the minority government 29 months after the last election.
The opposition parties have already begun painting Harper as a secretive leader who abuses power and leads a government plagued by scandal.
In the past month, the Conservative party and four of its top officials have been charged with election overspending and two RCMP investigations have been launched against former political staffers.
Ignatieff kicked off debate on the confidence motion this morning, accusing Harper of subverting democracy.
“You have spoken, Mr. Speaker. The committee has spoken, and now the House must speak with a clear voice,” Ignatieff told the Commons.
“And it must say that a government that breaks the rules and conceals facts from the Canadian people does not deserve to remain in office.”
Ignatieff acknowledged that some Canadians are questioning the need for the fourth federal election in less than seven years.
“We did not seek an election,” he said. “But if we need one to replace a government that doesn’t respect democracy with one that does, I can’t think of a more necessary election.”
John Baird, the Conservative House leader, responded that he was “saddened” by the premature end to Canada’s 40th Parliament.
That end is coming, said Baird, “because of the reckless actions of the Liberal, Bloc Quebecois and NDP coalition in forcing an unwanted an unnecessary election on Canadians.”
The opposition is hoping to set the tone for the campaign that formally begins Saturday after the prime minister pays a visit to Gov. Gen. David Johnston.
Harper is expected to campaign on this week’s federal budget laden with tightly targeted tax credits and riding-specific goodies, while simultaneously accusing his opponents of plotting to form a coalition government if he fails to win a majority.
The NDP says the budget fails to deliver real relief to beleaguered seniors’ pensions, understaffed health-care systems and middle-class Canadians burdened by home heating fuel taxes.
NDP Leader Jack Layton was still imploring the government to rewrite it’s budget as late as Friday morning’s final question period in the House.
“They’re just plain stubborn,” he said. “Why are Conservatives intent on provoking an election?”
Prospective Canadian voters have been bombarded with $26 million worth of feel-good Economic Action Plan ads over the past 11 weeks and bureaucrats were directed late last year to start using the “Harper Government” in place of Government of Canada on departmental news releases.
Taxpayer-funded ads from the Finance Department warn of the “fragile” nature of the economic recovery, and Baird alluded to the threat again in the Commons.
“It’s a vote that will weaken Canada’s economic recovery,” he said of the Liberal motion.
The government’s economic message, however, appears to be taking a back seat to its dire warnings of a Liberal-led coalition threat.
Ignatieff has tried to polarize the coming election into a two-party fight between Harper Conservatives and those who oppose them — between “a blue door and a red door.”
Conservatives are trying to convince Canadians otherwise.
“Lurking behind the red door are socialists and separatists plotting for cabinet seats!” thundered MP Dean Del Mastro in the Commons.
The alarmist Conservative talk is being scoffed at by Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who has pointedly noted that Harper proposed defeating Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government on its throne speech in 2004 and replacing it, with NDP and Bloc backing.
Duceppe revelled in the details this week, describing the Delta Hotel on Maissonneuve Boulevard in Montreal where Harper convened the conspirators.
“He was coming in my office saying, ’If Martin is going to lose confidence, what do you want in the throne speech? What would you like in the budget?”’ said Duceppe.
Ignatieff attempted to inoculate himself Friday against the nasty, brutish and short election campaign that appears likely in light of recent inflamed rhetoric from all sides of the House.
“Enough of the politics of fear,” he said. “Enough of the politics of division. Enough of the politics of personal destruction. Enough is enough.”