Liberals may reveal tax cuts Monday
Economic statement might be mini-budget Opposition aiming to set stage for early election
OTTAWA— The federal Liberals may announce broad- based personal income tax cuts Monday as a pre- emptive move in case opposition efforts succeed in forcing an early election.
There are signals that the minority Liberals may turn Monday’s economic statement into a mini- budget, and announce tax reductions and new spending.
Liberals made a similar move just before the 2000 election, when then-finance minister Paul Martin introduced a minibudget promising $100 billion in tax cuts. The House of Commons doesn’t sit in January, so the Liberals are concerned they might not be able to bring in a full budget in February. Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of the release of Justice John Gomery’s second report on the sponsorship affair, which is due on Feb. 1.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, who has a surplus estimated at $ 10 billion to $ 12 billion for the fiscal year ending next March, has hinted he would deliver tax cuts in his February budget, the traditional time to announce major initiatives. But the government has been rethinking its options in the face of threats from the opposition parties to topple the minority government or force an election call just after the new year.
Federal officials will take the unusual step of providing the contents of Monday’s economic statement to the media in a locked room in advance of Goodale’s remarks, something that is only done when the government announces tax or spending measures in the annual budget. The move comes as opposition leaders yesterday rallied around NDP Leader Jack Layton’s proposal for a motion aimed at setting the stage for an election call in January for a mid- February vote, weeks earlier than Martin’s election timetable. The motion, which would not be a confidence matter, is to be introduced Nov. 24 and would essentially post- date the fall of the government by a month and a half, sparing the country a Christmas election campaign “ that no one wants,” Layton told aVancouver news conference.
“ We will phrase the motion to ensure that the results we are seeking are able to be accomplished. I have no doubt that that will be possible,” he said.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, who had been pressing Layton to take the first step to bring down the Liberals, offered his tentative support for the “ innovative” idea.
“I think we’re moving
rapidly to a three-party
consensus to wrap up this
Parliament in a responsible way and put the question of the fate of the government to the people of Canada,” he said during a stop in Toronto. But Martin, also in Toronto yesterday, dismissed the opposition parties’ manoeuvring as gamesmanship.
“ I’m not going to play politics here. All of us want to govern,” the Prime Minister said during a news conference in Toronto. He made it clear he would stick by his original timetable to send Canadians to the polls shortly after the second and final report on the sponsorship scandal.
“ In the spring or in early March, there will be an election,” the Prime Minister said. “ And ( Canadians) don’t understand why we can’t wait.”
Nelson Wiseman, a political scientist at the University of Toronto, said the motion proposed by Layton has no legal force to topple the government.
“They’re not bringing down the government. It’s not a confidence issue. The government could thumb its nose at it,” Wiseman said.
“ I can’t take any of the three opposition parties seriously . . . they’re all playing games,” he said. Harper conceded that Layton’s motion might not have the legal force to bring down the government. But he’s hoping it would have enough moral suasion to force Martin to go along with the opposition timetable for a February election.
“ We may be able to present the government with a proposal that, for political reasons, the government will have to accept,” Harper said.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said he welcomed news that Layton had come to the same conclusion as the other opposition leaders — that the government no longer has the moral authority to govern.
“ The important thing today is that the majority of MPs elected by the population consider that this government no longer has the necessary moral authority to govern,” Duceppe said. But he cautioned that Layton’s proposal has to be analyzed carefully.
“ After such a vote, under parliamentary rules, will the government have the authority to govern?” The three leaders plan to meet Sunday or Monday to discuss Layton’s proposal. Meanwhile, an Environics poll shows the Liberals with 42 per cent support in the Greater Toronto Area, down nine points from the June 2004 election. The Conservatives have 33 per cent support, up six percentage points, and the NDP is at 21 per cent. The poll of 847 people was conducted the first week of November, in the immediate aftermath of the Gomery report, and results are considered accurate within 3.3 percentage points.