After the vote
The government limps on
IT WAS the narrowest of victories, and it may yet prove to be a pyrrhic one. With the help of a prominent defector from the Conservative opposition, the votes of two independent MPs and the casting ballot of the speaker, the minority Liberal government of Paul Martin, Canada's prime minister, defeated (by 153-152) a motion of no-confidence. Neither side came out of this parliamentary battle on May 19th well. The Liberals have done nothing to alter the perception that they do not deserve to win an election that has merely been delayed, not cancelled. But the opposition Conservatives failed to project themselves as a confident government-in-waiting.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “After the vote”
From the May 28th 2005 edition
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