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Story 1:
PM pins hopes on NDP lifeline
Layton props up Liberals — but for hefty $4.6B
Concessions on housing, tuition, corporate taxes
ANDREW MILLS AND LES WHITTINGTON
OTTAWA BUREAU
Jack Layton has thrown Paul Martin a $4.6 billion lifeline.
Whether it is enough to save the Prime Minister remains to be seen.
The Prime Minister and the NDP leader struck an extraordinary deal yesterday to, in essence, bring in a new 2005 budget, with the hope that it could keep the minority Liberal government from being defeated in the House of Commons in the next few weeks.
The deal amounts to a massive rewrite of the Feb. 23 budget, adding $4.6 billion in new spending over the next two years. It includes more money for housing, foreign aid, gas taxes for cities, funds to lower post-secondary school tuition fees and a delay in tax cuts for major corporations.
The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois appear to have enough votes to defeat the government — and dash the NDP's plans — if Tory Leader Stephen Harper moves a motion either of non-confidence, or on the budget itself. But the machinations of the vote are mind-boggling.
Martin last night deferred to Layton, who announced the "agreement in principle" at 5:30 p.m., with the Prime Minister adding some details two hours later. The two men met in Toronto on Sunday night after Layton demanded changes to the budget in exchange for his support.
Martin said the NDP will vote with the government on any motions of non-confidence until the budget receives "Royal Assent." Royal Assent is when Governor General Adrienne Clarkson signs the budget bill into law. That could be weeks, or theoretically, even months away.
Layton defended the new spending by saying "there is a crisis of faith in politics today." Canadians, he said, expect the NDP to "get something done for people and the environment.
"They don't send us here to play games. They send us here to work for their families and get as much done as we can for their families, their communities and our environment — with balanced budgets."
But Harper and Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe appear to remain determined to bring down the government over the sponsorship scandal.
The sponsorship inquiry by Justice John Gomery has heard testimony about senior members of the Quebec wing of the Liberal party taking kickbacks from advertising companies which did little for receiving millions of dollars from the federal government.
Late last night, Harper issued a statement saying, "my first response is that Mr. Martin and Mr. Layton think $4.6 billion of taxpayers money is the price to make corruption go away, but I wonder if the taxpayers of Canada are going to think the same thing."
But Layton said "there should be an election about Liberal corruption and broken promises and there will be. I believe we have an obligation to get as much done as we can in the short time ahead — which means job one is getting a better, balanced budget passed. Because it's long past time politics was about people."
The NDP leader added that Harper and Duceppe could vote for elections, "that's their choice, but for us, it's more important to have a good budget."
Martin said last night the deal is all about "making Parliament work." He wants it to work until Gomery issues his final report, slated for Dec. 15.
The Prime Minister told Canadians in a televised speech last Thursday night that he would call an election within 30 days of Gomery issuing his report.
But even with the NDP pact, the numbers don't appear to be in Martin's favour.
In the House of Commons now, the Liberal/NDP total is 150 votes; the Tory/Bloc 153 votes. One seat is vacant in the 308-member House and the Speaker, Liberal Peter Milliken, only votes when there is a tie.
There are three independents. One of them, Carolyn Parrish, will vote against an election.
David Kilgour, who recently left the Liberals because of the sponsorship scandal, is leaning towards voting with the Tories.
B.C. MP Chuck Cadman is wavering. Yesterday, he told the Star he has not made up his mind, after telling other media outlets Monday he would vote with the Tories.
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Story 2:
PM's travel plans upset Canadian war vets
Canadian war veterans are upset that concerns over a snap election have forced the Prime Minister and 12 MPs from all parties to cancel their plans to travel to Europe for VE-Day ceremonies.
The Canadian delegation was to have visited the Netherlands beginning May 7, accompanying about 2,000 Canadian veterans. In an announcement Monday, the Prime Minister's Office said his plans have changed. The MPs' announcements followed.
George Blackburn, an 88-year-old veteran who helped liberate Holland, thinks politicians will pay for pulling out of the trip.
"There are a hell of a lot of votes there that they're going to be alienating," Blackburn told CTV News.
Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the 51-member National Council of Veteran Associations, says Canada's vets have been delivered "the worst of all insults."
"What a shame that The Year of the Veteran -- 2005 -- should be celebrated by what can only be called a mockery engineered by our own prime minister," Chadderton wrote in a statement released following the announcement from the Prime Minister's Office.
Explaining his reaction in an interview with CTV's Canada AM Tuesday morning, the War Amps CEO condemned the decision.
"All of a sudden there's a change," Chadderton said, recalling promises from the PMO that Martin would be in there on May 8. "He's riding on the backs of the Canadians who really fought in Holland, that's what he's doing."
Commenting on the decision, PMO spokesperson Melanie Gruer said Monday that it was made "to ensure that the prime minister is here at home and available to Parliament," in light of opposition threats to force an election.
But Chadderton says putting electoral politics over historic ties will be hard for the Dutch to fathom.
"Our prime minister stays home because of politics, I don't think they'll understand it."
"We're too close to Holland, we did too much, we lost too many men," he added, mindful of the 7,600 Canadians who died there during the war.
Ontario high school student Allyson Kenny, who will be among the Canadian delegation in Holland on May 8, says she's "quite sad" the prime minister won't be there with her.
"We're going to be there and I think we're going to be able to carry the torch," Kenny told Canada AM. "We'll try to fill the prime minister's shoes as best we can."
Martin's European trip was to have lasted three days, but now coincides with a series of looming potential Commons crises.
Should the government face a parliamentary test on its budget plan or an opposition non-confidence motion, as expected, every vote would count.
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson has been asked to make the trip to Apeldoorn and Moscow, where she will head the Canadian delegation at ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Dutch and Soviet liberation during the Second World War.
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