SFU Prof Thinks Vote was a Confidence Vote

A Simon Fraser University Prof believes the vote taken yesterday was a vote of confidence:

The current motion is also strikingly similar, in procedural terms, to that proposed by H.H Stevens on June 26, 1926. That motion also recommended that a committee report be amended and precipitated the whole King-Byng crisis, when the Governor General refused a dissolution to King on the grounds that he should not avoid a confidence motion then before the House but not voted on; this was the Stevens' motion. For information on those events, see: House of Commons Debates, 1926, Vol.V, June 22 to June 25.

In light of the past precedents, and especially the relevance of the 1926 motions on the Customs Affair, the current motion appears to be clearly a vote of confidence which would normally require the government to resign or call an election after losing the vote. It is a fundamental blow to the government's authority for a majority of the House to agree on a motion that it should resign.

I also note a new CTV poll showing the Tories moving ahead once again. I find that most interesting because I thought the Tories didn't do particularly well handling the media at the beginning of last week when they started this latest poll. I think they started to do better when they started to talk about the Inky Mark/Reg Alcock affair later on in the week. It'll be interesting to see the results of polls taken this week in light of this vote and the new material coming out of the sponsorship scandal.