Canadian Adscam Scandel: Conservatives Begin Push To Overthrow Paul Martin

Bloomberg is reporting that Canadian Conservative Party Stephen Harper will seek a no-confidence vote to topple Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government. This will mean a second national election within a year:

Canadian Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper said he will seek a no-confidence vote to topple Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government, trying to force the country’s second election in a year.

Following a one-week parliamentary recess, Harper convened a meeting of his opposition caucus in Ottawa this evening to discuss how to bring down the minority government amid a corruption scandal over the misuse of government funds in Quebec.

Harper told reporters after the meeting that he hasn’t set a date for a no-confidence vote, and vowed not to support the federal budget when the Liberals bring it to the House of Commons for a vote.

The Canadian dollar fell 3.8 percent in April, the world’s worst performing currency, after the Liberals said they would boost spending in a bid to cling to power, and amid concern the Conservatives will force a national vote within weeks that may lead to another minority government.

The Conservatives, the largest opposition party, have the support of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. The two parties don’t have enough votes to defeat the 10-month-old government, and need the support of at least one of two independents, who haven’t indicated how they will vote.

Finally….. bring it on!

In other Adscam Scandel developments, Brault, Guité seek delay in criminal trials. The Globe and Mail reports:

Lawyers for Jean Brault and Chuck Guité have requested that their clients’ joint trial on fraud and conspiracy charges be delayed until September.

Jury selection is currently scheduled for June 6 but lawyers for the two men say the sponsorship inquiry will still be sitting at that time.

A judge will decide Wednesday whether to grant the request.

Ad man Mr. Brault has already testified at the inquiry, while Mr. Guité, who ran the sponsorship program in the late 1990s, continued his testimony Monday under a publication ban.

They were charged in connection with alleged improprieties at the program.

The men’s criminal proceedings have already been delayed. Jury selection originally was set for Monday but was put off last month until June 6 after lawyers argued May was too close to their clients’ appearances at the sponsorship inquiry, led by Mr. Justice John Gomery.

Meanwhile, Judge Gomery will likely announce Tuesday or Wednesday whether a publication ban on testimony before the inquiry provided by Mr. Guité late last week and early this week will be lifted.

Judge Gomery had already lifted a publication ban on Mr. Brault’s testimony in February when he appeared before the inquiry. Mr. Brault told the inquiry that he had been asked by Jacques Corriveau, a Liberal activist who earned nearly $8-million in disputed sponsorship subcontracts, to kick back sponsorship money to him as secret donations to the Liberal Party.

The testimony of advertising executive Paul Coffin last week was also under a publication ban so it wouldn’t prejudice his impending fraud trial.

The first person to be indicted after the RCMP began investigating the program, Mr. Coffin is to face trial starting on June 6 on 18 counts of fraud.

A onetime Conservative supporter, Mr. Coffin told the inquiry last week that his firm, Communication Coffin, made a quarter of a million dollars for doing little more than being a front for other companies that handled federal advertising campaigns.

If the publication ban is lifted (as it should be) the Canadian people will have access to the full story of the Adscam Scandel. The government will change.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters has this to say regarding the lifting of the publication ban. Read it here.

Update # 1

CTV Canada has this story on the bold moves of the Conservative Party.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters weighs in here:

Harper had a number of difficulties in getting to the point where a no-confidence vote could be introduced, and he’s not there yet. Earlier, of course, the NDP aligned itself with Paul Martin in order to block Harper’s momentum towards elections. Before that, the Liberals postponed all but one Opposition Day. Monday, Liberal MPs led by Tony Valeri apparently blocked an attempt for Harper to get one through to the floor, wanting to force Harper to use his only guaranteed Opposition Day to call the vote. That will create summer elections, which apparently all parties dislike and the electorate will likely resent, to the Tories’ disadvantage.

Harper has few options. Waiting for Gomery to finish his report will mean almost a year between now and the next election, and his own hesitation will amount to a tacit endorsement of the notion that the Adscam corruption did not rise to a level requiring the removal of the government. With the Liberals pulling out all stops to keep a no-confidence vote from being tabled despite the inevitability of the effort, he needs to take advantage of the limited openings he will get. A midsummer election may be the price he has to pay. It appears that his caucus understands this as well.

Harper should not wait for the Gomery Inquiry to finish. A mid-summer’s election is better than allowing the Liberal Party to continue in power.