Canada's 10-month-old Liberal minority government lost a key censure vote in Parliament on Tuesday but ignored opposition demands that it resign and call an election. The official opposition Conservative Party denounced the government's refusal to quit and said it would take unspecified "additional steps" on Wednesday to address what one top party legislator called a full-blown constitutional crisis. Minutes earlier, by a vote of 153-150, the House of Commons approved a motion instructing a committee to ask for the resignation of a government which has been hit hard by a corruption scandal. "Goodbye!" shouted one opposition legislator as the result of the vote was announced. But the Liberals made it clear they would be going nowhere. "We will continue to govern on behalf of Canadians," Liberal minister Tony Valeri told Parliament to catcalls and howls of outrage. Reuters quoted the opposition as saying the motion clearly expressed a lack of confidence in Prime Minister Paul Martin and should trigger an election, but the Liberals said it was only a procedural matter. Earlier in the day Liberal officials said that, in any case, opposition parties would get the chance to put forward formal confidence motions at the end of May.
