Opposition parties used the Liberal motto of "promises made, promises kept" against them Monday, turning it into "promises made, promises broken" as they attacked the governing party for failing voters on issues such as missile defence and mad cow disease.
Over the weekend, at the Liberal biennial convention, the rallying cry for the party became "promises made, promises kept" as members moved to revitalize the party. They gave Prime Minister Paul Martin more than enough support (88 per cent) to rule out a leadership vote, thus giving him assurances they want him to lead the party into the next election.
But the Conservatives said Monday the Liberals had reneged on missile defence and had failed cattle farmers on the mad cow issue since last June's election. The NDP also accused the Grits of backtracking on promises -- in particular, to reduce student debt load -- and the Bloc Québécois attacked the government for not keeping an election promise to change Employment Insurance rules.
Tory deputy leader Peter MacKay accused the government of misleading the United States into thinking Canada would take part in missile defence, only to back out later.
"Cabinet documents from last May clearly state that Canada would participate in the program. They were references to a memorandum of understanding. So my question to the Prime Minister is will he tell the House just what was in that original American proposal that he was originally supposed to sign on? "
"The Prime Minister has been clear both inside the House and outside that any decision in relation to MD Would be made and only made in the best interests of Canadians. Mr. Speaker, that is what we did," said Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. Mr. Martin was not present Monday -- which spurred accusations that he was hiding from the issues by opposition MPs.
The Liberals have taken their share of flak from the opposition since they announced two weeks ago that they would not participate in ballistic missile defence. Afterward, the Prime Minister phoned U.S. President George W. Bush, only to wait for about a week before he got a return phone call on Saturday. And a visit to Canada by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was off-again, on-again, although now it has been confirmed that Ms. Rice will come here, likely in April.
On Monday during Question Period, the Tories also accused the government of backtracking on allowing a debate in the House of Commons on the missile defence issue, but Ms. McLellan said a vote would have been held only if Canada had decided to take part in the program.
"There was no agreement reached with the United States. There is nothing to debate in the House."
And they said that cattle farmers will suffer indefinitely now that a court injunction last week means a further delay to the border reopening to young Canadian cattle. Monday was supposed to be the date that the border would officially reopen.
Tory Leader Stephen Harper pressed Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell to dip into the government's rainy day fund to help producers.
"The Prime Minister had promised Canadian producers that the American border would be opened today. Well, promise made, promise broken. Mr. Speaker, given the Prime Minister's incompetence in this crisis, is he now prepared to immediately use the budget's contingency funds to help our cattle farmers?"
But Mr. Mitchell said there is still plenty of funding available to cattle farmers, saying the government has invested $1.9 -billion into the industry.
Meanwhile, NDP Leader Jack Layton accused Mr. Martin of going back on his vow during last year's election campaign to reduce tuition fees.
"And then we receive a budget that has not a penny to help students with tuition fees, and instead has huge corporate tax cuts....Why did he break his promise to the students?"
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said that over the last few budgets, the Liberals have "invested heavily" in postsecondary education, up to $12-billion altogether. He added that on an annual basis, the government now provides about $4.7-billion to support students in colleges and universities.
Bloc Leader Gille Duceppe said the Prime Minister has not kept his promise of substantially reducing the hours of eligibility required for Employment Insurance in Quebec.
But Human Resources Minister Lucienne Robillard pointed out that Mr. Martin had changed the requirement from 910 hours to 840.
"This means that there were people who weren't eligible before who now will be eligible for EI benefits."
The Liberals will be tested several more times his week by the opposition parties in the form of amendments to the budget.
There will be a vote on a Bloc sub-amendment to the budget Monday but it's not expected to bring down the Liberal minority government. However, later this week there are Tory amendments to the budget that could be trickier, although Mr. Harper has said he does not want to bring down the government.