"Liberal says he may support budget"

Looks like Dion is once again having a hard time keeping his crew together and focused... sounds good to me!


(UPDATE: Make that TWO Liberal MP's... see bottom for details)

UPDATE II: Dion just gave MP Joe Comuzzi the boot!!!


I love this little bit from the article... "Voting against his own party on a budget - the ultimate matter of confidence - could result in expulsion from the Liberal caucus. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion refused to entertain the possibility of a caucus member siding with the government.

"All of us will vote against this budget. We will," Dion said."

Remember what happened last time he said something like that about one of his MP's? What was his name again? Oh, right, it was this guy...

(who I had the pleasure of meeting last week at a CONSERVATIVE event)
What was our slogan from those commercials? Oh, right... "DION IS NOT A LEADER"

Liberal says he may support budget
Thunder Bay Liberal MP says research cash likely to help his riding get cancer centre

OTTAWA (Mar 21, 2007)

The Liberals blasted the scattered "shotgun" approach of a federal budget that was eagerly embraced yesterday by their campaigning federalist cousins in Quebec.

While Liberal Premier Jean Charest grabbed the budget's cash transfers to make an election promise of $700 million in tax cuts, another well-known Liberal mused about supporting the government.

Ontario MP Joe Comuzzi threatened yesterday to break ranks and support the budget because he said its promised millions in research money might help his northern Ontario riding.

The 73-year-old former cabinet minister said he will vote against his party if he determines that some of that new money ends up funding a Thunder Bay cancer institute.

"That's important to me, and it's important to Thunder Bay," said Comuzzi, who added that he is consulting the government and expects to know this week whether that money will help his riding.

"If they can find that in the budget -- which I suspect very much (they can) -- it would be silly of me to vote against that. I'd be voting against my constituents."

Voting against his own party on a budget -- the ultimate matter of confidence -- could result in expulsion from the Liberal caucus. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion refused to entertain the possibility of a caucus member siding with the government.

"All of us will vote against this budget. We will," Dion said.

The official party position on the budget is that it lacks vision and long-range planning, and does little to improve the country.

"This is a shotgun budget," Opposition finance critic John McCallum said.

"It's as if the finance minister shut his eyes, held a shotgun into the air, pulled the trigger, and hoped that he hit as many targets as possible.

"It's an unfocussed budget, it's a directionless budget."

The budget has been relatively well-received in the media but has been hit with criticism from economic analysts, including some traditional Conservative allies such as the National Citizens' Coalition.

But the man who once led the coalition -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- shot back and challenged the Liberals to name a single measure they don't like.

"This contains popular and desirable social, environmental and economic measures that have been demanded by Canadians," Harper said during question period.

"The leader of the Opposition doesn't single out for criticism any single initiative in this budget. But he's going to vote against every one of them because he already made up his mind before he read it.

"That's something he'll have to explain in the next election."

The budget included several tax breaks for families with children, and measures targeted at some seniors, fishermen, farmers and people who buy fuel-efficient cars.

But for the second year, the Tories did not introduce broad-based income-tax cuts. Last year, the Tories erased a half-percentage-point cut that the Liberals had introduced on the first $35,000 earned.

"The only time this government has engaged in broad-based tax changes, it moved in the wrong direction," McCallum said.

"Despite its enormous surpluses, the government saw fit to maintain that higher income-tax rate."

He also lamented that the budget does little for the most vulnerable Canadians, including aboriginals.

The budget will pass thanks to the support of the Bloc Québécois, though that support appeared lukewarm yesterday.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said the government has a long way to go to eliminate the fiscal imbalance, even though his province received the lion's share of new transfer money.

UPDATE:Views on the Budget:
Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt- Juan De Fuca

"It's an uninspiring budget filled with missed opportunities, especially in the areas of productivity, personal income-tax reduction and help for the poor." (Nonetheless, he plans to support the budget and address that with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion today.)

h/t to SDA for the update.

Both MP's, Joe and Keith, are apparently known as "Harper Liberals", and despised by many in the left wing of the Party. Hey guys, we're recruiting... it's a pretty short walk across that isle... (especially for you Keith! You've done it before, you can do it again!)