Despite a softening in their polling numbers, Canada's opposition Conservatives said on Monday they were still eager to take down the minority Liberal government at the earliest opportunity. "We want to see an election now - N-O-W - as soon as possible," Conservative spokesman Geoff Norquay said. It was still not clear, however, when the Conservatives might get their first crack at it, or whether they would succeed. That they would consider it at all, just 10 months after the last election, stems from public anger over allegations of dirty money flowing to the Liberal Party in return for government advertising contracts.
The scandal cut heavily into Liberal polling support, but the party has recovered somewhat in recent surveys, which place it just ahead of the Conservatives - though still below levels reached in last June's election.
"The polls are certainly the more favourable for us," said one Liberal strategist, who predicted that the government would not fall this spring.
An Ipsos-Reid poll released on Saturday put the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives 32 percent to 31 percent. Two other polls last week had the Liberals ahead while another showed a Conservative lead.
The Liberals are promising to put budget bills - which are matters of confidence that would topple the government if defeated - up for debate this week, but it appeared unlikely Parliament would be able to vote on them so soon.
Another opportunity to express an opinion of the government is due on May 18, when Parliament is to vote on a motion instructing the House of Commons finance committee to "recommend that the government resign."
The government held fast on Monday to the stance that this was technically not an expression of non-confidence that would force its resignation.
This prompted an angry response from Conservative leader Stephen Harper, in Holland with Prime Minister Paul Martin to commemorate the end of World War Two in Europe. "I think this is outrageous. The government cannot decide whether it has or doesn't have the confidence of Parliament. Only members of Parliament can decide that," Harper said.
Martin, meantime, has been actively shoring up support inside and outside Parliament.
On Saturday he signed an agreement to turn over C$5.8 billion ($4.7 billion) over five years to vote-rich Ontario, similar to separate agreements he reached to boost funding to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
He is also expected to announce new funding and the dispatch of troops to the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, a key demand of independent Member of Parliament David Kilgour, whose support could be crucial in any vote of confidence in an evenly divided House of Commons.
"It certainly affects my feeling how I'll vote," Kilgour told CTV on Sunday. However, the Alberta legislator was also critical of Martin's deal with Ontario.
"The treasury is now on the auction block ... it's not very becoming to see him acting like Santa Claus six days a week," he told the Globe and Mail. "It doesn't impress me."
The Conservatives are guaranteed a day by mid-June to put forward a non-confidence motion. By then, however, there will be a new member of Parliament from Newfoundland, following a May 24 by-election. If it is a Liberal, that will make the electoral arithmetic in Ottawa even tighter.
Currently the Liberals and their supporters total 152 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons, though one of those is the speaker who votes only in the event of a tie. The Conservatives and their allies total 153. There are two undecided independents, as well as the one vacant seat.
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