The Liberal party insists it may still attempt to bring down the Conservative government in an upcoming confidence vote, despite the political risks of sending Canadians back to the polls for the second time in less than a year.
On Sunday, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said his party has not ruled anything out for its caucus meeting on Monday, when Leader Michael Ignatieff will decide whether his party will vote against the government's recent economic update.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the economic progress report on Thursday, saying 80 per cent of stimulus spending was being implemented and 3,000 new infrastructure projects have begun.
Ignatieff said Friday the report was unrealistically positive, but pledged to take a close look at the document before making up his mind.
"The options are all open," Goodale said in an interview on CTV's Question Period. "This is a serious issue and nobody should rule out anything at this stage. This is an important week for Canada, we've got to get it right."
Goodale said Liberal MPs have been consulting their constituents to gauge their support on the issues.
"They'll be listening to their constituents very carefully over this weekend as they have been doing for the last many weeks," he said. "And they'll be bringing that advice back to Mr. Ignatieff tomorrow and next week. They'll be weighing all of this very carefully and very conscientiously."
Liberal strategist Steve MacKinnon told Question Period that the party is out of debt, election-ready and believes the sitting government's days "are numbered."
But he said the decision to go into an election will be made by Ignatieff alone.
"Clearly, the days of this government are numbered, whether it's this week or at some point in the future," MacKinnon said. "The fact of the matter is that Mr. Ignatieff has a big decision that must be taken in the interests of our economy and our health care system."
But it will take more than Liberal votes to topple the Conservatives. The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois would have to vote against the government, too, in order for it to fall.
Both the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP have already signalled that they will not support the government in the upcoming confidence vote, a position NDP National Director Brad Lavigne said is consistent with his party's prior objections with the budget.
"This is part of the budget that was tabled a few months ago and we said that the budget wasn't going to do the trick, and yet time and time again, we're proven right," Lavigne told Question Period.
While he conceded that many Canadians will not want to head back to the polls this summer, Lavigne said it was a matter of principle that the NDP would not be supporting the budget.
"I think that most Canadians would prefer there not to be an election...but political parties have to make their decisions based on what they believe in," he said. "We have a belief that this budget is bad. We voted against the budget after reading it back a few months ago and this is the same vote for the same budget. This is the end of the process."
Conservative strategist Tim Powers echoed Lavigne's belief that Canadians do not want to go to the polls again.
On Question Period, Powers questioned why an election would be justified when the government believes it is making progress on the recession that has plagued the worldwide economy since last fall.
"We're starting to see signs, albeit slow, that the economy is turning around. Why is there any need for an election now?" Powers asked.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre suggested the Liberals would need to "reconstruct" the short-lived NDP-Liberal coalition that Ignatieff divorced his party from after Dion stepped down as party leader last fall.
