OTTAWA - The minority Conservative government easily survived a key confidence vote on its federal budget Monday, despite a political storm over allegations of bribery in the Chuck Cadman affair.
The House of Commons voted 202-7 against a Liberal amendment to the budget which would have brought down the government if it passed.
The Liberals intentionally crafted the amendment to fail in order to avoid an election for which insiders say the party is not organizationally or strategically ready.
They laced the wording with criticism of the NDP as big spenders. As a result, the NDP --which wants to defeat the government -- did not support the amendment.
To be sure their amendment failed, only a handful of Liberals showed up for the vote.
Even before the government survived the confidence test, NDP Leader Jack Layton warned that another one could be coming within days. He said he will soon announce whether he will use his opposition day Friday to table a non-confidence motion.
"We're talking about that right now within our caucus and will have an announcement,'' Layton said.
New Democrats note there will be a half-dozen other opposition days before Easter, along with a March 13 confidence vote on Afghanistan.
That leaves the Liberals in the embarrassing position of having to keep propping up a minority government embroiled in a scandal.
New Democrats have expressed exasperation that the Liberals can't take advantage of a political gift like the Cadman affair.
The Mounties are reviewing a Liberal demand for an investigation into allegations that top Conservatives offered Cadman, a former MP, a financial inducement to get his support in a 2005 Commons vote.
There is tape of the prime minister acknowledging that party officials discussed financial considerations with Cadman, who has since died.
The Liberals, who appear to be avoiding an election at any cost, say the budget isn't damaging enough to justify an election.
"Everybody agrees that this budget is not meaningful enough to justify an election. So no election about the budget,'' Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said.
The centrepiece of the budget is a new, personal tax-free savings plan. It contains no controversial items --save for the fact that after two years in office, the Tories have exhausted the federal surplus.
Tom Flanagan, a longtime Conservative strategist, says the party is "tightening the screws on the federal government,'' making it harder for Ottawa to create social programs while leaving more money in taxpayers' pockets.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was asked Monday whether that assessment was accurate and did not dispute it.
"We've reduced taxes of every kind --consumption taxes, income taxes, corporate taxes dramatically, excise taxes, the GST by two full percentage points,'' Flaherty said.
"We believe in controlling the size of government and controlling growth of government. Those are statements that are all true about our government. They're true about the budgets that we've undertaken.''
