Senate 1 - Flaherty 0

The loverly LuLu passed this on to me and I must admit, I snickered aloud. Seems that greasy Jim Flaherty went and got himself a bit of a schooling from the house of Canadian government that actually pays attention. That would be the much maligned Senate.

The Globular Mail quotes the following response to Flaherty's assertion that any tax bill is a confidence bill.

Liberal senators say Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was wrong when he told reporters last week that a bill to deny tax credits to makers of violent or pornographic films and TV shows is necessarily a matter of confidence and must not be changed.

"It would be useful if Mr. Flaherty learned a little bit of constitutional law," Yoine Goldstein, the Liberal vice-chairman of the Senate banking committee, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The omnibus Bill C-10 that includes the tax-credit provisions is not a confidence matter because it is just a collection of income-tax changes, not a budget bill, Mr. Goldstein said. That means it would not automatically trigger an election if it were returned to the House of Commons in amended form.

"They can declare it a matter of confidence if they choose to do that," the senator said. "But it's not automatically a matter of confidence."
*emphasis added

Seems the Cons are horny to get themselves an election at any cost. They likely figure that with the Liberals behaving like a pack of whelps, wimps and wankers it is their best and perhaps only shot at a majority before the reek of scandal completely enshrouds them. They may just be right on that too. Still it is delicious to see a crapulous veteran of Mike Harris's disastrous Ontario rule get his smarmy ass handed to him by the old folks political retirement village and snark factory. Three cheers for the Canadian Senate, actual accountability making an occasional appearance in government, no wonder the Cons want it gone.