Yeah, is there any connection to them taking over the NATO leadership role (Obama, you magnificiant knucklehead) and this vote of no confidence?
weird timing
My first thought.
This is over the federal budget, unveiled by Harper two days ago.
So the Liberal Messiah is such a screw-up that when He intended to overthrow the Libyan government, He ended up causing the overthrow of the Canadian government.
I can't wait for our vote of no confidence in 2012.
no connection
weird timing
No connection. This defeat is due to a number of recent controversies (I hesitate to say they rise to the level of scandals) that have been going on for a while now, longer than the conflict that's been flaring up in the Middle East.
Arguably the most significant of these is the "In and Out" scandal, over whether money was unlawfully transferred between the national Conservative Party and the local riding offices, in order to circumvent spending limits during the 2006 election.
Heritage Minister Bev Oda asked one of her staff in 2009 to annotate a memo of the Canadian International Development Agency, which resulted in a human-rights organization being denied funding. However, the original wording of the memo would have granted the funding, and it had already been signed. The real issue is that Oda originally claimed no knowledge of the alterations, but this was untrue.
The Conservatives committed $9 billion to purchase 65 F-5 jets for the Canadian Forces to replace our current fleet of CF-18s. The Opposition has raised questions about the process of selecting the jets (there was no competition) and the real cost of the purchase, and have accused the government of misleading Parliament.
Between Oda, the jets, and a few other items where the government were accused of disclosing their full cost, a report from a Commons committee found the government in contempt of Parliament - a first not only in Canada but anywhere in the British commonwealth.
The federal budget was presented on Tuesday and failed to gain the support of any Opposition party. The budget is the most important piece of legislation, and its failure to pass will automatically defeat a government. Harper is a canny politician, and he has been able in the past to use the budget to gain enough support from enough Opposition MPs.
Finally, all this culminated in a no-confidence motion tabled by the Liberal party earlier this week, which was passed this afternoon. Harper will visit the Governor-General tomorrow and request the dissolution of Parliament, meaning we will have a national election some time in early May.
Right now, the Conservatives have about a 19-point lead in the polls - if we were to vote right now, there's a very good chance of them winning a majority this time round.