Last week, the Liberal shadow Cabinet held a quasi-emergency meeting in which the need to go to the polls as soon as possible was debated and recognized. According to Liberal sources, the general consensus was that the Conservative immigration reform plan would be the trigger for an election and that Canadians should go to the polls as early as June.

Last week, the Opposition Liberals voted against an NDP motion that would have forced the government to remove the immigration reforms from the budget bill. It will now be debated in committee. The Liberals intend to present their amendments to the proposed reforms at the Citizenship and Immigration Committee and are confident that their amendments will pass with the support of the other opposition parties. Once committee debates are finished, the bill will head back to the House of Commons for a vote.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley has publicly stated that the government has no intention of changing the bill and that the Liberal amendments would be rejected.

If the Liberal and Conservative positions hold, the final vote against the budget and the immigration reforms would take place in the first half of May and an election would take place in June.