Canada Liberals tighten opposition to keeping Harper in power

Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, in a tight race ahead of the Oct 19 election, said on Tuesday he would not abstain from a confidence vote that would decide whether Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper could form a minority government.
With six days left before the ballot and the vote too close to call, Canada’s three main parties are jockeying to lay out their positions in what looks likely to be a minority government.
The center-left Liberals and New Democrat Party could topple a minority Conservative government if they vote in Parliament against Harper, seeking a rare fourth straight term in office.
Trudeau had said previously his party would not vote to support keeping Harper in power, and his remark on Tuesday clarified that he would not even abstain in a vote of confidence if the Conservatives won the most seats.
"There is no circumstance in which I could either support him or even stand back and allow him to continue to be prime minister," Trudeau said at a campaign event in Toronto.
It underlined the challenges Harper will face if he takes the most seats in the House of Commons but not retain the majority he won in the 2011 election.
The other major contender, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, had earlier said there was not "a snowball’s chance in hell" that he could vote for a potential Conservative government’s program at the opening of Parliament.
If Harper fails to win the support of enough opposition legislators, his government would fall.The consequence of that would normally either be a new election or a possible new government formed by one or more parties, such as the Liberals or the NDP.
However, it was not clear whether the Liberals and NDP, both to the left of the Conservatives, could overcome their mutual antagonism, and Trudeau did nothing on Tuesday to clear that up.
Asked if he could sit down with Mulcair or his advisers in a minority Parliament, he declined to answer affirmatively and instead spoke of their differences."I made a very different choice from Mr Mulcair, the choice of investing now in our communities, in our country, in our future, the choice to put more money in the pockets of hard-working Canadians," Trudeau declared.