Filibuster Cartoons
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Last night the Canadian Parliament voted non-confidence in the administration of Prime Minister Paul Martin, 153 to 150. The Conservatives had managed to get a non-confidence motion attached as a rider to another piece of legislation, thus making the vote come much earlier than expected.
BUT! Martin says he will not accept the vote and will not step down and call new elections. He doesn’t consider the vote to be binding because it took the form of a rider and not a formal motion. Someday, he says, the parliament will have a chance to have a “real” confidence vote, but God knows when that will be.
The opposition parties are all hopping mad now. THEY considered last night’s vote to be “formal” enough for them. Conservative leader Stephen Harper has even basically declared Paul Martin to be an illegitimate and dangerous Prime Minister because of his refusal to step down.
