Canada's opposition parties are poised to showdown with the Liberal minority government over the timing of an early election, threatening to oust Prime Minister Paul Martin late this month.

Jack Layton, Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), moved an unbinding motion on Thursday in the House of Commons which calls on the Liberals to set Feb. 13 as the election day or face defeat by the opposition.

The move is a formality as Martin has repeatedly rejected the concept as "non-confidence lite", saying only a straightforward non-confidence motion can defeat a government.

Layton said that his moving of the motion was to get it on the record that Liberals could compromise and allow the parliament to sit until Jan. 2, 2006 to pass important legislation before beginning an election campaign.

En route to South Korea for an Asian Pacific summit, Martin told reporters that the timetable he set for an election in March or April would allow Christians and Canadians of other religious faiths to celebrate their religious holidays without interruption from politicians knocking on their doors.

"When you are talking about the holiday season, there are also other religions that have different New Year's at different dates and their holidays at a different date and I think we have to be respectful of that -- the orthodox churches, for example," he said, adding that "it's up to the opposition. I don't want a Christmas election."

Martin did not rule out the possibility that the Liberals would prorogue the parliament to prevent the newly united opposition from toppling his minority government late this month.

The Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper, who heads the largest opposition group, made it clear on Wednesday the opposition parties now plan a non-confidence motion in a week with the defeat of the government likely on Nov. 28. That would likely mean Canadians would head to the polls in early January after a campaign spanning the holiday season.

The opposition has been taking advantage of declining support for the Liberals after a judicial report early November found the party received kickbacks in exchange of advertising contracts for promoting federalism in the French speaking province of Quebec.

Martin has promised to call an election campaign to start within 30 days of the release of the final judicial report, which is due Feb. 1. Concern about the timing of a possible no- confidence vote had emerged recently from aboriginal leaders, who called on all sides to hold off bringing down the government before a two-day first ministers' conference.

The conference is slated to begin Nov. 24 The Liberal popularity, which was briefly lower than the Conservatives following the release of the scandal report, has bounced back this week.

According to an Ipsos Reid poll published in the National Post on Thursday, the Liberal have the support of about 36 percent decided voters, compared with the 27 percent of the Conservative, 16 percent for the NDP.

Source: Xinhua