OTTAWA—Canada's minority Conservative government could face a confidence motion over its climate-change policy this week but political strategists said it was unlikely the country would be thrown into a quick election over the issue.
The small left-leaning New Democratic Party left open the possibility on Tuesday that it would use Thursday, when it is entitled to set the agenda of the House of Commons, to move that Parliament had lost confidence in the government because of what opposition parties say is inaction on global warming.
Party leader Jack Layton met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday afternoon to demand the government do more to fight climate change and said afterward he was downcast by what he had heard.
"I was optimistic this morning but now I am rather disappointed. I'm not convinced that the prime minister really understands the urgency of this situation," he told reporters.
Layton said he would continue to consult with Harper's office and would discuss the matter with his party's legislators at a regular meeting on Wednesday morning.
"We'll continue the communication back and forth and see if there somehow is a way we can proceed," he said.
Asked if he might propose a motion of no-confidence if he deemed the answer from Harper's office to be unsatisfactory, Layton replied: "We don't want to move in that direction because it would be preferable to achieve positive results with respect to climate change."
Harper's office said the meeting had been good but gave few details.
Since the Conservatives, elected in January, have only 124 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, the government is always vulnerable to being defeated on a confidence motion.
If such a motion were to pass, the country would head into its third national election in 2-1/2 years, but analysts said this was unlikely.
The motion would have to have the support of the Liberals, the biggest opposition party. But the Liberals gave Layton's idea a cool reception in light of the fact that they are gearing up to choose a new party leader in December and would not want to enter a federal campaign without their new chief.
"We don't vote for stunts," one Liberal official said.
Harper's government introduced its Clean Air Act two weeks ago to reduce air pollution and limit emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which are blamed for global warming.
But all three opposition parties—the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois -- said they would vote against it because it would not act quickly enough on climate change.
Layton also introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, but this also met a hostile reaction.
Gilles Duceppe—head of the only other opposition party, the Bloc Quebecois—told reporters he did not think the NDP knew what it was doing and called the bill a "diversion."
The opposition parties have signaled they would most likely vote to topple the government next spring over its budget.
Defeat of the Clean Air Act legislation would not automatically trigger an election but it could mean political gridlock over the environment.
Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions but the Conservatives say the country cannot meet the treaty's goals.
