Developments for Tuesday, November 8th:

Top News

1. Stephen Harper is undecided as to how he will vote on the December 8th spending estimates, a confidence vote.

2. Jack, however, has said he will vote against the spending estimates on the 8th. Huh? So now the NDP is against the Liberal budget and the Tories are for it? Odd times…

3. Harper, as of now, does not intend to introduce a non-confidence motion on the November 15h opposition day, but says his motion will be “interesting”. I personally can’t see Stephen Harper ever doing anything “interesting” in his lifetime, but maybe he’ll surprise me.

4. Gilles Duceppe has said he won’t introduce a non-confidence motion, saying it’s up to the federalist parties to do so, and he will join them on it when they do.

Blogs

1. My Blahg has the funniest picture you’ll see this week.

2. Stephen Taylor breaks down the latest polling numbers.

3. Monte Solberg rants about the current situation.

Key Dates

The first Tory opposition day is November 15th. The Bloc has one the 17th and the NDP has one the 24th. The spending estimates come to a vote on December 8th.

Speculation

-I imagine Ralph Goodale is busy beefing up his economic update this week.

-A lot of people seem to think we might wait until the 8th for the non-confidence vote but, for the life of me, I can’t see why the opposition parties would want to bring down the government on spending estimates when they could do it on a harshly worded non-confidence motion. I tend to think all signs are pointing to the NDP introducing a non-confidence motion on the 24th. That would likely leave us on track for a vote on January 7th or 16th, assuming a break from the campaign over the holidays.