OTTAWA — It's not in the national interest to hold a federal election this fall, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Sunday as his party works to avoid being provoked by Stephen Harper into triggering another trip to the polls.
He said the Liberals, facing a vote on the Oct. 16 Throne Speech that could lead to the Harper government's defeat, feel that Canadians don't want another ballot after a slew of provincial votes this year.
“Our judgment is this country doesn't want to go to another [election],” Mr. Ignatieff told CTV's Question Period.
He said his party remains undecided on whether to defeat the Throne Speech, but noted that “we've got a lot of election fatigue out there and a responsible opposition has to bear that in mind.”
Separately, Mr. Ignatieff made a blunt appeal to his party to rally around Liberal chief Stéphane Dion, whose leadership has come under fire since by-election losses in Quebec last month.
“United parties win and divided parties lose. … Let's show some message discipline,” said Mr. Ignatieff, a former leadership rival of Mr. Dion's whose supporters have been accused of failing to quit campaigning.
“Never underestimate Dion. I did,” Mr. Ignatieff said, referring to his second-place finish in last year's leadership race.
The Liberal deputy took pains to ensure the careful messages he delivered in Sunday's TV appearance got maximum exposure, even flying to Ottawa for the interview, which took place with Mr. Dion's consent.
Mr. Ignatieff is the highest-ranking MP in Parliament's Official Opposition to comment since the minority Harper government announced last week it will expand the number of Commons confidence votes on Conservative policies this fall.
Mr. Dion has so far stayed silent on this development.
Any of these planned confidence votes will trigger an election if defeated, a prospect that the Conservatives privately appear to relish, but the Liberals, shaken by by-election losses, clearly do not.
This means the Throne Speech is only the first of a series of instances where the Liberals will be forced to acquiesce to policies they dislike – including a Tory plan to limit federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction – or hit the campaign trail.
The onus is on the Liberals because so far the NDP and Bloc Québécois appear eager to oppose the Tories rather than back down.
Tory MP Pierre Poilievre said the Conservatives want confidence votes on key priorities in their Throne Speech because they're upset Mr. Dion is opposing tough-on-crime efforts and the extension of anti-terrorism measures that his party supported in the last election — before he took over.
“We've said, ‘Listen, you're going to vote for it and help pass it or you're going to have to explain your strange positions on these issues to the electorate,' ” Mr. Poilievre told Question Period.
Mr. Ignatieff said he believes that Mr. Harper simply no longer has any interest in the compromises needed to make a minority Parliament work.
“On the criminal justice bills that the government brought forward last session, we were prepared to fast track 70 per cent of them. That's compromise,” the Liberal MP said.
He rejected the notion the Liberals would be irrelevant if they let Tory legislation pass.
“A third of this country wants to vote for the Liberal Party if you give it half a decent reason to do so. We have a huge electoral base,” he said. “The idea of irrelevancy is … insulting to the millions and millions of Canadians who voted for us.”
Separately, Mr. Ignatieff dismissed suggestions he is still hoping to supplant Mr. Dion and urged other Liberals to put aside the leadership divisions that once separated them.
“Do you remember how I got up within 30 seconds of losing to Mr. Dion? I pledged my support then and it remains now,” he said.
“Let's take the labels off our necks here. There are no more Ignatieff people, Dion people, Dryden people, Brison people. They're Liberals, and we have to fight and win as a team.”
One way the Liberals could avoid triggering an election on a confidence vote is to ensure enough of their MPs abstain from voting so that it passes.
But Liberal finance critic John McCallum said “it may be difficult to avoid” an election if Mr. Harper is determined to make a confidence vote out of every piece of legislation emanating from priorities in the Throne Speech.
“There may be some issues on which we feel very strongly and if we simply abstain on everything then where are we as an Official Opposition?”
