For the last week or so, the House of Commons has featured politicians blustering at each other over a $3 billion fund the Conservatives say is crucial to their job-creating infrastructure spending but which some opposition critics say is a slush fund to boost Tory political fortunes.
The political posturing briefly revived the spectre of another general election caused by a paralyzed Parliament.
Yet once the cameras and microphones are turned off, politicians on all sides privately say they there will be no election this spring and they expect the partisan wrangling to sort itself out by the end of the month when the first possible confidence votes might be held over the Conservative government’s $3 billion fund.
Still, the political theatre is a good example of how each party is trying to walk a fine line of demonstrating that they are not playing partisan politics — several polls have suggested that Canadians want politicians to end political gamesmanship in favour of real work on the recession — while at the same time laying down markers to be used for political advantage later … [Read the rest of the story]