Canadian Liberal's minority government survived a confidence vote late Thursday afternoon, staving off a snap election. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    OTTAWA, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Canadian Liberal's minority government survived a confidence vote late Thursday afternoon, staving off a snap election.

    With the support of the New Democratic Party, and two independent parliament members, the House voted evenly 152 to 152 on Bill C-48, an amendment to the budget that adds 4.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 3.7 billion US dollars) in social program spending and delays corporate tax cuts.

    That left Speaker of the House Peter Milliken, who is a Liberal MP, to break the tie and vote for the budget. The speaker only votes in the event of a tie.

    If the amendment had failed, Prime Minister Paul Martin would have asked the governor general to dissolve parliament and call a general election likely for the end of June, only a year after thelast election in June 2004.

    A month ago, the opposition Conservatives appeared to be gaining momentum as they capitalized on a torrent of headlines implicating Martin's party in a multimillion-dollar sponsorship spending scandal.

    Seizing on the negative publicity, the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois found themselves aligned in a plan to topple the government on the confidence vote.

    Speaking to a crowd of cheering party faithful after the vote, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper expressed his disappointment.

    "While tonight's vote is an unfortunate result for the country at this moment, it will also provide us with persuasive arguments for change when Canadians finally and inevitably head to the polls," he said.

    Harper has indicated he will not continue to test the government with more non-confidence motions before the House breaks for summer recess next month. Enditem