OTTAWA – Talks between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff are to continue Wednesday in a bid to avoid a summer election.
The leaders met twice in one day Tuesday, first in an hour-long discussion in Harper’s Langevin Block office and then again at the prime minister’s residence. Officials said both meetings were “productive.”
The political rivals are trying to determine if there’s sufficient common ground to allow Ignatieff’s Liberals to support the government in a confidence vote scheduled for Friday.
The NDP and Bloc Quebecois have already said they’ll vote against the government so Liberal support is crucial to the survival of Harper’s minority Conservatives.
Ignatieff has warned he’ll defeat the government if he doesn’t receive adequate assurances from Harper on employment insurance enhancements, infrastructure spending, eventual deficit elimination and the medical isotope crisis.
