CANADA: Canada's Liberal Party barely clung to power on Thursday night, winning a vote of confidence when the House speaker cast the first tiebreaker ever on such a motion.
Last-minute support from two independent lawmakers split the House of Commons evenly, and Speaker Peter Milliken's vote left the Liberals in power, 153-152.
Prime minister Paul Martin, whose party has been wounded by a corruption scandal, acknowledged the slim margin in a speech amid hoots, cheers and catcalls from the packed chamber.
"Tonight's vote was very close," he said. "Tomorrow we go back to work to show Canadians we deserve their confidence."
The Liberal Party has lost popular support in recent months as momentum built in an inquiry into allegations that some party leaders had received kickbacks in return for federal advertising contracts.
The actions allegedly occurred in the 1990s, and Mr Martin has not been linked to any wrongdoing. The party has had to make big concessions to hold on to its backing, however. Last month Mr Martin pledged to hold elections 30 days after the inquiry was completed, expected to be around the end of the year.
The Liberals recently promised provinces $17.8 billion (€14.2 million) in funding for new programmes above the regular $33 billion budget and won the votes of the New Democratic Party by promising to delay $3.4 billion in corporate tax cuts.
A member of the Conservatives, Gurmant Grewal, claimed the Liberals had tried to entice him to switch sides with promises of a diplomatic or senate job. Mr Martin denied it, saying Mr Grewal had in fact approached the Liberals with the idea.
The leader of the Conservatives, Stephen Harper, painted the Liberals as corrupt and their victory the result of a "shameless effort to buy votes".
"In setting out to win tonight's vote at all costs," he said, "the Liberals displayed the very lack of principle and integrity that underlies their corruption and the scandals. While tonight's vote is an unfortunate vote for this country at the moment, it provides Conservatives with persuasive arguments for change when Canadians finally head to the polls."
The drama surrounding the future of the Liberals' minority government was heightened this week when Belinda Stronach, a Conservative, stunned Parliament Hill by defecting to the Liberals from the party she helped establish in late 2003.
"They are just a corrupt government that got one of our members and managed to beat us by the speaker's vote," said John Reynolds, a Conservative from British Columbia. "I doubt the government will survive the year."