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OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion warned Friday the country could be headed for a spring election unless the Harper government backs down from its position on the Afghanistan war.  
 
"If the government doesn't want to do anything to explore that our views might be compatible after February 2009 . . . the government will look as usual intransigent and the consequence may be an election," Dion told reporters in Vancouver.  
 
Dion was responding to the government's introduction earlier in the day of a parliamentary motion calling for the two-year extension of the Afghanistan mission until the end of 2011.  
 
The Liberals plan to come up with amendments to the motion at a caucus meeting next week. If both sides can't agree, Canadians will be headed to the polls for the third time in four years.  
 
The government on Friday declared the motion a confidence matter, meaning the defeat of the motion in Parliament would trigger an election.  
 
Dion's language only fuelled speculation that the minority Parliament is on its last gasp. A vote on the Afghanistan mission is expected sometime next month, but the government could fall before then. It faces a confidence vote on its crime legislation next week, then another on the federal budget later this month.  
 
Earlier in the day, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff struck a more conciliatory tone than Dion.  
 
"This is the most important thing Canada's done in 50 years. We are anxious to work with the government to find a respectable, honourable compromise that serves the national interest."  
 
He questioned whether it is "in the national interest for us to plunge the country into a bitter election on an issue where Canadians, I think desperately, right across the partisan divide, want us to pull together and do our jobs as politicians."  
 
But Dion stuck to his oft-stated position that Canada must end the combat aspect of the mission in February 2009 and, instead, ramp up development work and training of Afghan security forces. The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois staunchly oppose an extension of the mission beyond 2009, leaving the Liberals with the deciding vote in the Commons.  
 
"We have a motion that we cannot accept today. We'll come with our own proposal next week and we'll let the Parliament do its job," said Dion.  
 
Last month, a panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley recommended extending the mission beyond February 2009, the current expiration date, provided Canada can secure more equipment and convince its allies to commit roughly 1,000 more troops to the volatile south.  
 
The government's motion supports that proposal, but recommends a review of the mission in 2011. In a departure from the Manley report, it also proposes completing the mission by the end of 2011.  
 
At a NATO meeting in Lithuania, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay confirmed that France has made clear its willingness to answer at least partly Canada's demand for a 1,000-troop reinforcement in Kandahar.  
 
France is "very receptive to our message," MacKay told reporters here at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers.  
 
"We wanted to talk in more detail about logistics and that's exactly what's happening in Paris today."  
 
Government House leader Peter Van Loan said Friday he hopes to put the motion to a vote sometime next month, after the budget has been passed.  
 
He said the government is willing to consider amendments, but only if they reflect the "broad recommendations" of the Manley report.  
 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave Dion a copy of the motion at a meeting of the two leaders on Tuesday, when Van Loan says Dion was invited to propose amendments to the motion.  
 
"When none arrived, we delayed submitting the motion until today to allow him even more time. Unfortunately, no suggested changes were provided by the Liberal leader, either in his meeting with the prime minister or subsequently in writing. All we have seen are Mr. Dion's public statements that he is unwilling to compromise his position," said Van Loan.  
 
Dion said the government had many weeks to write its motion and tried to rush the Liberals into a response in a matter of hours. Ignatieff added that the Liberals want to make their amendments public and not negotiate secretly with the government.  
 
Van Loan said the government wants a non-partisan debate, but he couldn't resist taking a shot at Dion's position.  
 
"He talks about a non-combat role. Well you can't have your soldiers in a dangerous part of the country tie their hands behind their backs and tell them they can't shoot back at the other guys until their buddy just got killed beside them."  
 
The remarks angered Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert, who chairs the party's committee on Canada and the world.  
 
"If you're out training people, of course, you're going to shoot back," Wilfert said in an interview. The Liberals simply wanted to end Canada's "search and destroy" military operations in February 2009, but would support training and security for development and reconstruction in Kandahar or other regions of the country, he said.  
 
The government also announced Friday that it has created a cabinet committee on Afghanistan and a task force on the mission within the Privy Council, in line with the recommendations of the Manley panel.  
 
The cabinet committee will consider diplomatic, defence, development and security issues related to the mission. It will be chaired by Trade Minister David Emerson and report to the prime minister and the key priorities and planning committee.  
 
The task force will be headed by deputy minister David Mulroney, who was previously the top bureaucrat co-ordinating the mission at Foreign Affairs.  
 
The steps appeared designed to respond to a Manley criticism that the government's Afghanistan-related policies were badly co-ordinated - an issue the Liberals intend to address in their amendments.