Canadian politics heat up over deficit

OTTAWA, May 28 (UPI) -- News that Canada's deficit was higher than forecast has heated up Parliamentary debate in Ottawa, with opposition calls for the finance minister to resign.

During Question Period Wednesday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff called for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to be fired, Sun Media reported.

"What is at stake here is the credibility of the government of Canada and the credibility of the minister of finance," Ignatieff said.

In response, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he had no plans to fire anyone and that videotapes he had of Ignatieff's past as a journalist and professor at Harvard University could lead to the Liberals firing him.

Outside, Ignatieff told reporters Harper's apparent threat to air old videotapes was akin to something a former U.S. president might have done.

"Every day that goes by, he's more like Richard Nixon," Ignatieff said, referring to Nixon's practice of secretly recording hundreds of conversations from 1971 through 1973, the report said.

The issue arose a day after Flaherty announced the projected deficit of $64 billion over the next two years was now more than $80 billion and will take at least five years to pay down, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.