posted June 15, 2005 01:14 AM              

OTTAWA (June 15) - Canada's minority Liberal government survived a long series of confidence votes over its budgetary policies on Tuesday night, helping stave off the threat of an early summer election.

Votes against the government could have defeated Prime Minister Paul Martin and sent the country to the polls just one year after the Liberals lost their parliamentary majority in the last election.

But as many observers had predicted, the government won all 16 votes, many by a margin of 153 votes to 149. The House of Commons elected chamber has 308 seats, but several Members of Parliament were absent.

Despite the tight margin of victory there was little tension in the air since few believed the main opposition Conservatives really wanted to bring down the Liberals.

Last month, amid rising anger over a government corruption scandal, the Conservatives came within a single vote of toppling Martin.

But in the last few weeks a series of mishaps have dented the Conservative party's popularity. Polls show that if an election were held now the Conservatives would do worse than they did in the June 2004 vote, when they won 99 seats.

Martin has promised to call a federal election shortly after a public inquiry into the scandal issues its final report in December.

Despite Tuesday's victory, the Liberals and their left-leaning New Democrat allies are not totally safe yet. Legislators are due to vote on further elements of the budget before Parliament breaks for the summer on June 23.

Former Liberal Member of Parliament Pat O'Brien voted against the government on many of the motions because he is deeply unhappy about draft legislation to legalize gay marriage across the country.

Parliament has been awash in rumors over the last week that other socially conservative Liberals would also oppose Martin but in the end they all backed the government.

06/15/05 00:20 ET

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.