Better put on your seat belts -- Ottawa's in for a bumpy ride tonight. After the Liberals ignored a no-confidence motion that passed by three votes, the Tories have upped the ante by refusing to allow for an adjournment, and immediately moved a new no-confidence motion:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper moved what he deemed a no-confidence motion in the government, the second such move made by the Tories in two days. ...

Mr. Harper said the government has "lost the moral authority and democratic legitimacy to govern this country. Madame Speaker, today is one of those more difficult days where it falls to the Leader of the Oppostion to tell the... government that they cannot carry on," Mr. Harper said in a speech to the House Wednesday afternoon.

It appears to be part of an opposition tactic to continue to push for a confidence motion to be recognized in the House.
His motion came minutes after the Liberals tried to adjourn the House for the day but lost a vote on that motion.

The motion, "that the debate be now adjourned," put forward by New Brunswick backbencher Dominic LeBlanc and Ontario MP Judi Longfield, was defeated 153 to 147.

If nothing else, a marathon session of defeated adjournments will expose the folly of the Liberal position that Parliament has not issued a no-confidence call for the Martin government. The Liberals can't even garner enough votes to get out of the chamber for dinner! Stephen Harper may intend on getting his latest motion on the table before allowing for any adjournment, which could take all night. It certainly demonstrates that the Tories have no intention of allowing Martin and the Liberals to set the election date, regardless of whether the difference only amounts to eight days. Harper also wants to avoid giving them the excuse of claiming that the no-confidence vote reflects on budgetary priorities instead of the widespread corruption revealed thus far at the Gomery Inquiry.

If the Tories keep defeating adjournment motions, the spectacle of Liberals trying to escape Parliament will become so ludicrous, and so representative of the Adscam scandal, that Martin may be forced to resign just to put a stop to it.

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