OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned Liberal Leader Stephane Dion that the Conservative government is prepared to go to the electorate as early as next week to seek a mandate to extend the military mission in Afghanistan, CTV News has learned.
Harper met Dion for 25 minutes in his Centre Block office on Tuesday to discuss the Manley panel recommendations on Afghanistan.
The report calls for Canada to extend the military deployment past 2009 if NATO nations provide another 1,000 combat troops and more equipment.
Sources say Harper told the Liberal leader the government will give notice on Thursday to present a confidence motion on extending the military mission in Afghanistan. That motion could be debated and possibly voted on as early as next week.
The government could fall if the Liberals do not support it, since the NDP and Bloc Quebecois are against Canada's extension of the NATO mission.
The Liberal party is deeply divided over the issue, with many members siding with former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley and others supporting Dion, who wants all combat operations to end after 2009.
Ahead of the meeting, Dion told reporters he wouldn't budge on his position. He said he would ask the prime minister whether he's willing to discuss a different role for Canada in Afghanistan past 2009.
Tuesday's meeting comes a day after the Harper discussed the mission with New Democrat Leader Jack Layton.
Layton is calling for Canada's role in Afghanistan to end by the current February 2009 deadline, with the mission then dismantled and reinvented as a United Nations project.
On Monday, he called the current mission a "dead end" with no hope in sight for a successful outcome.
With Liberal support on the issue, Harper's Conservatives could push through the government motion to adopt the Manley report's recommendations.
Dion has made it clear he will be pushing for a united caucus on the issue, and Liberal MPs will be expected to toe the party line when they vote.
