ELECTION FEVER: SYMPTOMS EASE ONLY SLIGHTLY

Harper and Dion extend olive branch on Afghan mission

PM lauds 'important progress' with Liberals

CAMPBELL CLARK and GLORIA GALLOWAY AND JANE TABER

With a report from The Canadian Press

February 13, 2008

OTTAWA -- The Conservatives and Liberals moved yesterday toward a compromise on Afghanistan that would give troops a changed mandate after 2009 and allow them to stay in Kandahar until 2011, but the drumbeats for a spring election were not silenced.

Liberal MPs walked out en masse before a vote on a confidence motion demanding the Senate pass a crime bill by March 1, as the Tories kept alive a threat to trigger an election if the deadline is not met.

And the Feb. 26 budget still has the Liberals contemplating their own vote to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservatives, which would pitch the country into a campaign before a deal on the Afghan mission is sealed.

But both Mr. Harper and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion made clear they do not want the dangerous mission of Canadian troops in Afghanistan to spark a general election.

The Prime Minister seized upon a Liberal proposal to redefine the mission after 2009 as grounds for compromise, and sought to blunt Mr. Dion's opportunity to campaign against him on Afghanistan by declaring that there are now two parties who favour extending the military mission.

"The [Liberal] position as I understand it today is very clear, and that is that Canada should remain with the military mission in Afghanistan through to 2011," Mr. Harper told reporters. "I think this is important progress that has been made."

For Mr. Harper, a deal on Afghanistan would thwart the Liberals' ability to campaign against extending the mission, and allow the NDP to siphon anti-war votes from the Liberals.

Mr. Harper opened the door to concessions of his own on the Afghanistan motion yesterday, suggesting he will seek to rotate the lead role for the Kandahar mission to another NATO ally after 2009, and end it in 2011.

It was Mr. Dion who moved first, releasing a proposal for Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan until 2011, but with a mandate to shift away from combat to focus on security for reconstruction efforts and training for the Afghan army.

Mr. Harper's government has said that another NATO ally must provide 1,000 troops for reinforcements if the Canadian mission is to be extended, and Mr. Dion said those new NATO troops must take over counter-insurgency operations.

But crucially,their motion did not explicitly call for an end to the troops' combat role - and Mr. Dion said it would be up to military leaders to decide what fighting they would need to do under a new mandate.

"It's certainly for the military to implement the mission," he said.

Mr. Harper insisted that the government has always wanted to end the mission in 2011, and said he would examine the Liberal proposal to see what "consensus" could be reached.

While Mr. Harper has sought reinforcements from allies, he appeared to suggest that Mr. Dion's call for new NATO troops to rotate into the main counter-insurgency role is not a deal breaker.

"I think partnership typically in these situations involves some kind of rotation in the lead, and that would, I think, be a realistic part of what other countries would propose to us," Mr. Harper said.

It's not clear yet whether any country will offer 1,000 troops for Kandahar, however. The government has focused its hopes on France, but the French ambassador to Canada, Daniel Jouanneau, said an answer will not come until a NATO summit in Bucharest from April 2 to 4.

"That is where President [Nicolas] Sarkozy will announce his decision," he said.Many Liberals are still bullish on forcing an election over the budget, and believe that Mr. Dion is intent on going to the polls then.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, would prefer a campaign sparked over crime laws, and yesterday pushed a confidence motion through the Commons demanding the Senate pass their crime bill by March 1 - after the Liberal walkout.

"We said last week that we have no intention of allowing the government to defeat itself on this vote," Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said.

If the Senate does not meet the deadline, the Tories could use it as a two-track campaign message that Liberals are soft on crime, and their senators obstructionist.

The Senate agreed unanimously yesterday to allow its justice committee to sit through a scheduled break next week to speed through the bill, but Liberal Senate Leader Céline Hervieux-Payette offered no guarantees the committee will finish by March 1. Senators received the massive bill just three weeks ago, she said.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson insisted the deadline is firm.

"If, for whatever reason they cannot or will not pass that bill, I am going to advise the Prime Minister that he should treat this as a confidence measure and I will leave it in his hands."