Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin

The ASSociated Press has Canadian Government Falls on No-Confidence

A corruption scandal forced a vote of no-confidence Monday that toppled Prime Minister Paul Martin’s minority government, triggering an unusual election campaign during the Christmas holidays.

Canada’s three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin’s government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.

The loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on Jan. 23. Martin and his Cabinet would continue to govern until then.

In a 171 to 133 vote, the House passed a historic no-confidence motion exactly one year and five months after Canadian voters elected the Liberals.

Opposition leaders last week called for the no-confidence vote after Martin rejected their demands to dissolve Parliament in January and hold early elections in February. Monday’s vote follows a flurry of spending announcements in Ottawa last week, with the government trying to advance its agenda ahead of its demise.

Martin is expected to dissolve the House of Commons on Tuesday and set a firm date for the elections. Under Canadian law, elections must be held on a Monday _ unless it falls on a holiday _ and the campaign period is sharply restricted.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters Blog who owns the Adscam Scandel Story has ‘This Government Has Lost The Moral Authority To Govern’

The Canadian Parliament approved a historic no-confidence motion against the Liberal executive in Ottawa this afternoon, dissolving the government and forcing elections weeks after the Gomery Inquiry issued its first comprehensive report on the Liberal corruption in the Sponsorship Program:…

I’m listening to the aftermath on CPAC, where the Liberal apologist wants to tell Canada that Adscam involved “a few Liberals”, but that “no one believes that it involved the party as a whole”. That apparently will be the line that the Liberals take in this election, along with a scolding tone about all of the great work that the Commons could be doing instead of holding another election seventeen months after the last one.

Well, that’s why elections get held — so that the Liberals can make that argument now that the country knows about the extent of the corruption. If they want to offer up the notion that just a few Liberals involved themselves in the money-laundering and featherbedding that went on in Adscam, I expect that the Tories and BQ will quote extensively from the Gomery report to remind voters of the extent of the corruption, including all of the money that flowed back into the Liberal Party through the government contracts given to cronies of Jean Chretien.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin gives a thumbs-up to caucus members as he stands next to Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, right, after voting against a no-confidence motion in Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 28, 2005. Canada’s three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin’s government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.

It is about time the Canadian parliament was dissolved and new elections called.

Flap thought it would be this past summer but the politicians waited for the

of the Gomery Commission that is located here.

READ IT ALL.

Will the Liberal Party of Paul Martin be able to explain away the rank corruption of their government?

Will Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, be able to form a majority or a minority-coalition government after the elections?

Stay tuned…….

MP Pat O’Brien announces at a news conference in Ottawa on Monday that he is quitting the Liberal Party to sit as an independent.

Liberal MP Pat O’Brien announced Monday he would be leaving the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent, saying Prime Minister Paul Martin had gone back on his promise to give adequate public consultation on same-sex marriage legislation:

“They’re determined to move forward on this issue, and you can see how and what a rush they are [in] to do that,” Mr. O’Brien said at a morning press conference on Monday.

“I can’t accept that in good conscience, so I leave the party with some regret, but my objective remains (to) defeat Bill C-38. Hopefully I can be more successful as an independent than I was as a Liberal.”

Mr. O’Brien, who represents the Ontario riding of London–Fanshawe, had threatened to jump ship in April if public consultation were not sought by the legislative committee studying the same-sex marriage bill.

So, will this new balance of power in Parliament mean a No-Confidence Vote? Remembering that the last call for an election was barely resisted by the Liberal Party.

Mr. O’Brien said Monday that he feels that the Prime Minister went back on his word and that the process to legislate same-sex marriage was “unfolding to be a farce.”

As it stands, there are 132 liberals, 98 Conservatives, 54 Bloc, 19 NDP, and four independents in the House. The second reading of the bill passed 164-137. At the time, only 35 Liberal members voted against the bill, which was supported by both the Bloc and the NDP.

If Mr. O’Brien wanted to defeat the bill in the House, he would have to muster nearly 15 more MPs to win. Failing that, Mr. O’Brien could only hope to force a confidence motion or hope that Mr. Martin retracted the bill.

Mr. O’Brien said he favours the latter.

So, stay tuned. Canada might have an election yet this year.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters opines:

It sounds as if O’Brien will be reluctant to support the Liberals if another no-confidence motion gets tabled in Parliament. This brings the Commons back to a 152-all tie, assuming that the Parliamentary factions line up as before. It places even more pressure on Chuck Cadman and David Kilgour now that budget issues have mostly been addressed.

The first plea in the sponsorship scandel that threatens the Paul Martin – Liberal Party government has occurred. The Globe and Mail has the story about the gulty plea of Paul Coffin to 15 fraud charges here:

Mr. Coffin, the first person charged in the scandal, had originally faced 18 counts, but three counts were withdrawn by the Crown during Tuesday’s hearing.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but the judge hearing the case indicated he won’t impose a sentence at the top end of the range.

Mr. Coffin, head of Montreal-based Communication Coffin, had been accused of submitting false or inflated invoices as part of his handling of federal sponsorships of car and mountain-bike races, among other events, between 1997 and 2002.

He was originally scheduled to go to trial on the charges early next month. Lawyers will appear in court Aug. 16 to make arguments on sentencing.

“The defence attorney said that Mr. Coffin wished to get his financial house in order and we thought it was a good idea to give him that opportunity,” Crown attorney Francois Drolet told reporters outside of court.

“After all, one month and a half is not such a long delay.”

The delay will also allow Mr. Coffin time to reimburse the government for the $1.5-million covered in Tuesday’s plea.

However, Mr. Drolet also said, even if that takes place, the Crown will likely still ask for a jail sentence in the case.

Will Paul Martin grant him clemency or commute his sentence? And why not? He has been buying off the other politicos to stay in power. This would be an easy ministerial action.

Later Tuesday, the Conservatives will try again to introduce a motion calling on the government to expand the inquiry’s mandate. The Liberals have called the motion unnecessary.

Meanwhile, six charges of fraud have also been laid against former Groupaction Marketing Inc. president Jean Brault. Mr. Brault is scheduled be tried in October along with retired civil servant Chuck Guité, who managed the sponsorship program from 1996 to 1999.

Well one down, a few more to go.

When do the pardons begin?

Read Captain Ed’s take on this story here.

Adman Paul Coffin, the first person charged in the federal sponsorship scandal, leaves a Montreal courthouse Tuesday after pleading guilty to 15 fraud charges.

Jean Brault former president of Groupaction

A forensic audit presented yesterday reveals that Groupaction Marketing, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the federal sponsorship program, may have given more than $1.7-million to the federal Liberal party in unregistered donations. Read the story here:

The sum is in addition to the $800,000 that nine advertising firms involved in the sponsorship program, including Groupaction, made in official donations to the Liberals, for a total of $2.5-million over the 10 years examined by Kroll Lindquist Avey, forensic accounting experts hired by the Gomery inquiry.

The accounting firm was unable to trace any cash payments made to the Liberals but unearthed more than $400,000 in cash that Groupaction president Jean Brault would have had at his disposal between 1996 and 2002.

Mr. Brault has testified that he was leaned on to help the Liberal “cause” as payment for the lucrative sponsorship and advertising contracts being sent his way. He said he provided envelopes of cash and put Liberal workers on his payroll.

How can the Canadian people tolerate such blatant subversion of their government with these corrupt activities?

Prime Minister Paul Martin has a taxpayer financed War Room to help him manage Gomery Inquiry public relations. Read the story here:

The Liberal government has set up a war room — at a cost of about $1-million to taxpayers — to handle the fallout from the Gomery commission.

Documents obtained by CanWest News Service through the Access to Information Act reveal the rapid-response war room, which is in almost daily contact with the Prime Minister’s Office and the government’s top bureaucrat, Alex Himelfarb, is operating out of the Privy Council Office.

The cost of the strategic office, which does everything from prepare answers for Question Period in the House of Commons to keeping the PMO abreast of testimony at the inquiry, covers the salaries of staff and expenses.

The Gomery war room and its cost came to light on the heels of last week’s complaints from Judge John Gomery about federal officials exaggerating the cost of his inquiry.

Officials at the commission looking into the sponsorship scandal say the total cost of the actual inquiry will come in under $32-million. Judge Gomery said government officials have “leaked” to the media that it is costing departments another $40-million to cover costs at four key departments, including the PCO.

“It’s an exaggeration and it’s twisting reality,” Judge Gomery said Thursday during the inquiry.

Revelations from the inquiry, which is digging into the $250-million sponsorship scheme, forced the Liberals to put $750,000 into a trust fund to pay back money improperly obtained by the party.

One memo to Mr. Himelfarb indicates the strategy office was set up almost immediately after the Martin government launched the inquiry in February, 2004, upon the release of Auditor-General Sheila Fraser’s damning report on the sponsorship program.

What is so surprising of a Prime Minister, and the Liberal political party who bribes (Flap means convinces) Conservative Party members to switch parties to save themselves from a no-confidence vote?