Canada PM Faces Resignation Vote
Canada PM faces resignation vote
Mr Martin says he will call an election later this year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4532329.stm
Canadian MPs are set to vote on an opposition motion calling on the scandal-hit minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin to resign.
The ruling Liberal Party says it does not recognise the motion as a matter of no confidence.
However, the opposition says Mr Martin should resign if he loses the vote.
In new testimony to an inquiry into a financial scandal, a former Liberal party executive has said he made illegal payments to party officials.
Close vote
Mr Martin has been fighting to save his minority government, with the opposition Conservative Party and Bloc Quebecois increasingly pushing for an early election.
The motion under consideration on Tuesday calls on the Public Accounts Committee to amend a report to "recommend that the government resign because of its failure to address the deficiencies in governance of the public service".
"What you have here is an instruction to a committee. It's a long way away from any type of confidence motion," the Liberal leader in the House of Commons, Tony Valeri, said.
However, the Bloc Quebecois House leader, Michel Gauthier, said Mr Martin would have no choice but to resign if the majority of members in the House voted in favour of the motion.
The Speaker of the House of Commons has ruled that the motion is in order, and it is unclear what would happen if the motion passed.
The results of the vote, scheduled for 1745 (2145 GMT), will be close.
The Liberals, allied with the New Democratic Party, can count on 151 votes. The Conservatives, allied with the Bloc Quebecois, say they can count on 153 votes.
The government is pinning its hopes on the support of independent MPs. However, one of them, MP Chuck Cadman, is being treated for cancer and may not be able to travel to Ottawa for the vote.
'Kickbacks'
The scandal erupted after a report last year found that C$100m of government money earmarked to promote Canadian unity in the late 1990s was given to advertising firms with Liberal connections for little or no work.
The subsequent judicial inquiry, headed by Judge John Gomery, has heard explosive testimony, including allegations that Liberal party officials received kickbacks.
In Monday's testimony, Benoit Corbeil, the party's former chief executive in the province of Quebec, said he gave envelopes stuffed with C$100 bills to party staffers now working for government ministers.
He said the money came from a secret C$50,000 donation from an advertising executive, who has admitted giving money from government contracts to the Liberal Party.
Mr Martin, who has not been implicated in the affair, has promised to call a general election within 30 days of the inquiry's final report and recommendations, expected at the end of the year.
He was finance minister when the alleged corruption took place, under the premiership of Jean Chretien.
