Prime Minister Jean Chretien Message Board

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Politics : Prime Minister Jean Chretien

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To: Graystone who started this subject	12/5/2002 10:31:43 PM
From: Condor	Read Replies (2) of 443

Canada's Chretien Voids Parliament Vote By TOM COHEN 12/05/2002 20:32:34 EST TORONTO (AP) - Prime Minister Jean Chretien's government avoided a potentially fatal Parliament vote Thursday when opposition parties agreed to let it withdraw a request for more money for Canada's beleaguered gun control program. If the governing Liberal Party lost the vote in the House of Commons for an additional $46 million, a snap election could have followed because funding proposals are considered confidence motions. Withdrawing the request from a larger spending proposal demonstrated the weakness of Chretien, who has announced he will step down in February 2004. Divisions within the Liberal Party caucus in Parliament have undermined his authority and strengthened the opposition. "This is why Chretien isn't going to hold on," said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. "He's toast. The only issue is how much longer." The Liberal Party holds 169 of the 301 seats in the House of Commons, a solid majority that usually ensures approval of any government proposal. Chretien's plan to step down, with former Cabinet minister Paul Martin the front-runner to succeed him as party leader and prime minister, has divided the Liberal caucus to the point that support for government proposals is in question. So House party leader Don Boudria had to scramble Thursday for unanimous consent from other parties to withdraw the gun control funds from the spending proposal. An audit made public Tuesday by Auditor General Sheila Fraser detailed huge overspending on the gun control program, with a projected cost of $1 billion by 2004-2005, more than eight times the initial estimate. Some Liberal Party legislators said they were unable to support more money for the program so soon after the audit. "Members on all sides of the House didn't like this particular line item" in the measure, Boudria said in explaining the withdrawal. The 1995 gun control program is supported by most Canadians but opposed in rural areas and by hunters, who say it targets legal gun owners while failing to reduce illegal weapons used by criminals.

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