Paul Martin and Liberal Party Survive

In a late night session of Parliament, Canadian Prime Minister and his Liberal Party survived a series of no-confidence votes:

The Liberals, with the support of the NDP and Tories, easily defeated the Bloc Québécois in a vote on a federal budget bill, 249-53.

That was just one of a handful of confidence measures voted on in a marathon session in the House of Commons.

The Liberals came within a hair of collapse just a few weeks ago.

But the tension in the Commons has cooled somewhat, as the Tories have been slumping in public-opinion polls and are less eager for an election.

The opposition predicts the Liberals will survive the remaining votes and would only lose if they engineered their own defeat.

It is obvious form the voting pattern, the Tories simply did not have sufficient votes to even tie a no-confidence test.

With the decline in the polls for the Conservative Party, even with the Adscam Scandel and Gomery Inquiry the government has been ripe to fall.

Stephen Harper has been unable to orchestrate a change.

Is it time for the Tories to choose new leadership?