Our sources inside this morning’s national Liberal caucus tell us that Lleader Stephane Dion has just briefed MPs on his meeting last night with Prime Minister Harper. As my colleague Robert Fife reported last night, Harper told Dion that he’s going to introduce a “notice of motion” on Afghanistan later this week and that that motion will be a confidence vote. The implication was clear: If the Liberals don’t get on board with Harper’s motion, we’re going to the electorate.
This morning, Liberal sources tell CTV that this is the motion:
“That Canada will extend their combat mission beyond February 9th 2009 if 1000 troops from other countries and military equipment in the form of heliopters are also provided.”
Unlike the Government’s first motion on Afghanistan, there will be plenty of time set aside for MPs to debate this motion — a full nine days, as opposed to the six hours of rushed debate on a surprise motion to extend the mission that happened on May 17, 2006.
The vote, the PM said, will likely take place towards the end of March and Harper wants the vote taken before NATO leaders meet in Bucharest, Romania in early April.
Dion told his MPs that, for the Liberals, the vote will be “whipped”, which means MPs risk their place in caucus if they do not vote the way Dion tells them to. Dion will be telling them to vote against this motion but — intriguingly — he told the PM he will put forward an amendment. We don’t yet know what the amendment is but, if either the Liberals or Conservatives want to avoid an election, perhaps this is the ‘out’.
And, in a separate development, the vote on the federal budget will take place in the first week in March.
So that means there will be two votes – at least — next month upon which the government could stand or fall.
Is everyone’s election bus ready to go?