Canadian opposition Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said on Monday he would not support a government that was not doing its work but he sidestepped whether he would topple the minority government.
“I can’t be an accomplice to a government that isn’t doing its work,” Ignatieff told reporters as members of his caucus arrived for meeting that will focus on whether to force an early election.
Yet he would not say whether that means the country is likely to head into its fourth election in five-and-a-half years.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper led his Conservative Party to reelection last October, with more seats but still a minority, requiring the support of at least one of the three opposition parties.
Ignatieff faces the delicate question of whether to risk bringing the government down during fragile economic times and risk suffering the third straight Liberal loss — or to face ridicule for continuing to keep the government alive.
“We’re going to have a good discussion and we’ll make a decision when it suits us,” said Ignatieff, who took over as party leader from Stephane Dion after an abysmal Liberal performance in the election.
Ignatieff said the Liberals had kept the government in power for the past 10 months because the Liberals had put the country’s interests before the party’s interests.
“Welcome to the wonderful world of opposition!” he said when a reporter asked him if he felt damned if he brought the government down and damned if he kept it in power.
The Conservatives triggered the last election but have been arguing strongly that it would be a mistake to have another one now.
“The last thing, the very last thing this country needs is an unnecessary election, less than a year [after] we had the last one,” Transport Minister John Baird said during a news conference in Ottawa.
He said it was a measure of sanity that Liberal Senator David Smith, the party’s campaign co-chairman, had been questioning the need for an election.
Liberal hawks say the government has not moved infrastructure money fast enough, has racked up a large budget deficit without an adequate plan for eliminating it, has mismanaged health issues and has not come adequately to the defense of Canadians in trouble abroad.
Party doves point to the Liberals’ tepid standing in the polls, which mostly put their support at about even with the Conservatives, and to the lack of a coherent campaign narrative to excite the electorate.
The Liberals will meet in Sudbury through today.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
‘MAGA CIVIL WAR’: Former Trump strategist Bannon said the H1-B program created ‘indentured servants,’ but Musk said that he was willing ‘to go to war on this issue’ US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday weighed in on a bitter debate dividing his traditional supporters and tech barons such as Elon Musk, saying that he backs a special visa program that helps highly skilled workers enter the country. “I’ve always liked the [H1-B] visas, I have always been in favor of the visas, that’s why we have them” at Trump-owned facilities, he told the New York Post in his first public comments on the matter since it flared up this week. An angry back-and-forth, largely between Silicon Valley’s Musk and traditional anti-immigration Trump backers, has erupted in fiery fashion, with Musk
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
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