page_title: Timeline of the 2006 Canadian federal election
section_title: Pre-campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the 2006 Canadian federal election / 2005 / Pre-campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: David Wilkins,
context_page_description: The election was held on January 23, 2006.
context_section_description: February 23 - Finance Minister Ralph Goodale presented the 2005 federal budget to the House of Commons of Canada. When the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party (NDP) opposed the budget, the Conservative Party caucus abstained on the vote, which was held on March 9, allowing the government to maintain confidence.
  March 31 - Testimony by Jean Brault, former president of Groupaction at the Gomery Commission was considered so damaging to the Liberals that many speculated that an election could be held soon.  The details of the testimony were not publicly revealed due to a publication ban imposed by Mr. Justice Gomery.
  April 7 - Justice Gomery lifted the publication ban on much of the testimony just minutes before question period.  Opposition parties launched a full assault on the government with the new evidence.
  April 11 - *An EKOS/Toronto Star poll showed the Conservatives leading the Liberals 36% to 25%.  This was the first time since before the 1993 election that a party led the Liberals by more than the margin of error.
  April 13 - David Kilgour, MP, left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent.  Kilgour who was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative in the 1979 election said that he would not run as a Conservative in the next election.
  April 21 - Prime Minister Paul Martin addressed the nation at 19:02 eastern time and promised to call an election within 30 days of the final report of the Gomery Commission, due on December 15, should his government survive to that date, while outlining the steps his administration had taken to address the sponsorship scandal.  Each of the three opposition party leaders responded live following Martin's taped address.  The NDP's Jack Layton offered to support the government, which, with the close numbers in the House of Commons would make the survival of the government possible but not certain, if Martin agreed to remove corporate tax cuts from the budget.  Opposition Leader Stephen Harper suggested an election was likely but not certain while Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe unequivocally supported an immediate election.
  April 26 - An agreement in principle between the Liberals and the NDP was reached under which tax cuts for large corporations would be deferred but those for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) would remain.  The deferred tax cuts were to be introduced later in a separate bill, while budget surpluses would be used to fund mutual Liberal and NDP priorities such as training, post-secondary education, foreign aid, affordable housing and the environment.  Under the agreement, the NDP would support the government on any confidence motions until the budget received Royal Assent.
  May 10 - The House of Commons passed, by a margin of 153 to 150, a Conservative motion that called upon the House Public Accounts committee to "recommend that the government resign because of its failure to address the deficiencies in governance of the public service". Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs voted in favor of the motion against the Liberals, the NDP and two independent MPs.  Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri maintained that the vote was not a matter of confidence while all opposition parties, including the NDP though it sided with the government on the vote, said that it was.  The government lost four more similar votes over the next two days.
  May 11 - Prime Minister Martin called for a vote on the budget implementation bill on May 19, he suggested that this would be the time that the House would determine whether or not it had confidence in his government.  Some constitutional experts had suggested such a move should be taken as the confidence issue was uncertain.
  May 17 - Prime Minister Martin and prominent Conservative MP and former leadership contender Belinda Stronach announced that Stronach would join the Liberal Party and become Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.  This move gave the Liberals a stronger but not certain chance of winning the confidence vote scheduled for May 19.  It brought the total number of MPs committed to supporting
caption: David Wilkins
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