Canada media assess dramatic vote

Under the headline "Survivor", the Ottawa Citizen shows a picture of a relieved-looking Mr Paul Martin, who scraped home by just one vote.

But many of the other newspaper front pages show pictures of the independent MP Chuck Cadman, whose vote swung it for the government.

Headlines such as "Back from the Brink" and "Election Averted" sum up the narrow victory of the minority Liberal government.

The Calgary Herald simply prints the outcome of the vote, 153-152, as the headline.

The Globe and Mail describes the win as nothing more than a brief reprieve for Mr Martin, and says his government is still very much on probation.

But it quotes political analysts as saying the Liberals must now use the momentum of their win to push forward with their spending initiatives and to demonstrate progress on legislation.

The newspaper's Brian Laghi believes the opposition Conservative leader Stephen Harper now finds himself with "a chunk of his political capital spent".

He has "a temperamental image with the Canadian public, and some members of his party [are] sniping at him for what they believe was the frittering away of the massive advantage given to him by the sponsorship scandal", Brian Laghi writes.

The Toronto Star agrees.

In its editorial, the paper says Mr Harper has failed to persuade the electorate to put their faith in his party and the win has spared Canadians a costly early election.

"The time has come to cool the fury in Parliament, to ease the pressure on Martin to resort to seedy vote buying, and to let him deliver on his many promises, including ethical promises," the newspaper says.

"Harper, too, can make good use of the coming months to hold Martin to account for clean, competent government, and to reposition his Tories as a credible, moderate alternative."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version