Election talk heats up in Canada

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer

TORONTO – Canada's main opposition party vowed Tuesday to try to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government at the first opportunity, which could force a fourth election in the last five years and the second in just a year.

Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff's announcement means the Conservative government could be toppled in a confidence vote if Canada's two other opposition parties also vote to bring down the government.

"Mr. Harper, your time is up. The Liberal party cannot support this government any further," Ignatieff said. "We will hold Stephen Harper to account, and we will oppose his government in Parliament."

Harper now needs support from at least one of three opposition parties to stay in power. The Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats would have to do an about-face to back Harper.

The Liberals will have their first opportunity to present a motion of non-confidence in the first week of October. At an election-style pep rally Ignatieff said the party would push for a vote at the first opportunity.

Ignatieff has been the party's leader since December and doesn't want to be seen as propping up the government, as former leader Stephane Dion did dozens of times before losing the election last October.

Harper's Conservative Party was re-elected last fall with a strengthened minority government, but still must rely on the opposition to pass legislation and to stay in power.

The three opposition parties hold the majority of the seats in Parliament with 162, while the Conservatives have 143 and there is one independent.

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton met Harper last month and reiterated that it would be the least likely party to prop up the Conservatives.

But New Democratic deputy leader Thomas Mulcair immediately offered an olive branch to Harper on Tuesday.

"What I'm saying is: the last thing Canadians want is a fourth general election in five years, and we'd better have a bloody good reason for forcing a fourth general election in five years," Mulcair said. "So if Mr. Harper goes about being provocative as he has been in the past, going after key things that Canadians hold dearly — like women's rights and the environment — then we'll throw him out of office because he'll have provoked it.

"If, on the other hand, Stephen Harper comes into Parliament with a willingness to work in the public interest, then we're going to take it on a case-by-case basis. Our caucus will decide."

The Bloc hasn't backed Harper's government in recent years and is expected to comment on Wednesday.

Harper said now is not the time for another election.

"We had an election in this country less than a year ago. I haven't met a single Canadian who is saying they want to see another election right now," Harper said. "I think Canadians have been pretty clear.

"They want Parliament to focus on the economy. That is what the government will be doing in the fall session. It's certainly our view ... that going through more political games, more political instability does not serve the country's interest right now."

Conservative Transport Minister John Baird accused Ignatieff of putting his own interests ahead of Canadians. Baird also cast doubt that the Conservatives could work with the New Democrats, a union-backed party with socialist roots.

Ignatieff criticized Harper for the nation's high unemployment and rising budget deficit. He said his goal is to make Canada "the smartest, healthiest, greenest, most open-minded country there is" by 2017 — the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Ignatieff, 62, left a prestigious post in 2005 as director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard to enter Canadian politics.