Besieged Liberals Hold On to Power in Canadian Cliffhanger

Canada’s Liberal Party barely clung to power Thursday, winning a vote of confidence when the House speaker cast the first tiebreaker ever on such a motion.

Last-minute support from two independent lawmakers split the House of Commons evenly, and Speaker Peter Milliken’s vote left the Liberals in power, 153-152.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, whose party has been wounded by a corruption scandal, acknowledged the slim margin in a speech amid hoots, cheers and catcalls from the packed chamber.

“Tonight’s vote was very close,” he said. “Tomorrow we go back to work to show Canadians we deserve their confidence.”

The Liberal Party has lost popular support in recent months as momentum built in a probe into allegations that some party leaders had received kickbacks in return for federal advertising contracts. The actions allegedly occurred in the 1990s, and Martin has not been linked to any wrongdoing.

The party has had to make big concessions to hold on to its backing, however. Last month, Martin pledged to hold elections 30 days after the inquiry was completed, expected to be around the end of the year.

The Liberals recently promised provinces $17.8 billion in funding for new programs above the regular $33-billion budget and won the votes of the New Democratic Party by promising to delay $3.4 billion in corporate tax cuts.

One member of the Conservatives, Gurmant Grewal, said this week that the Liberals had tried to entice him to switch sides with promises of a diplomatic or Senate job.

Martin denied it Thursday, saying that in fact Grewal had approached the Liberals with the idea.

The leader of the Conservatives, Stephen Harper, painted the Liberals as corrupt and their victory the result of a “shameless effort to buy votes.”

Speaking after the vote, Harper said the Liberals won a pyrrhic victory. “In setting out to win tonight’s vote at all costs, the Liberals displayed the very lack of principle and integrity that underlies their corruption and the scandals. While tonight’s vote is an unfortunate vote for this country at the moment, it provides Conservatives with persuasive arguments for change when Canadians finally head to the polls.”

The drama surrounding the future of the Liberals’ minority government was heightened this week when Belinda Stronach, a Conservative, stunned Parliament Hill by defecting to the Liberals from the party she helped establish in late 2003.

Harper has said he will not test the government with more no-confidence motions before the House recesses next month. But others in his party said Martin should not rest easy.

“They are just a corrupt government that got one of our members and managed to beat us by the speaker’s vote,” said John Reynolds, a Conservative. “I doubt the government will survive the year.”

Special correspondent Guly reported from Ottawa and staff writer Farley from New York.