With recent political developments indicating a federal election is imminent, a Liberal cabinet minister is claiming national unity is on the line.

On CTV's Question Period, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe of attempting to divide the country.

"The only reason that the Bloc is going to have the kind of impact that it has (in Quebec), is that Stephen Harper is a more ardent provincialist and separatist than even Gilles Duceppe," said Volpe, who's also the Liberal Party's Ontario lieutenant.

"Shame on you," was Conservative MP John Reynolds' response to Volpe's accusation.

The latest polls show Stephen Harper's Conservatives out in front of the Liberals. They indicate the Tories would be in power with at least a minority government if an election were held today.

And many Conservatives are waiting for the right moment to pounce on the Liberal minority government, which is reeling over testimony coming from the sponsorship inquiry headed by Justice John Gomery.

On Question Period, New Democrat MP Ed Broadbent called the sponsorship scandal "the colossal failure of the Liberal government of Canada."

The Liberals, meanwhile, continue to plead for patience and attempt to distance themselves from Jean Chretien's Liberals. Chretien created the sponsorship program after the 1995 sovereignty referendum in Quebec -- one the federalists almost lost.

"What's going on in the Gomery inquiry has nothing to do with this administration," Volpe told Question Period co-host Mike Duffy.

"It has everything to do with a small clique of individuals who attached themselves to government. It doesn't matter which government is in place."

In the event of an election, it's expected the Liberals will make national unity a main campaign theme in hopes that Canadians favour their vision of the country over the Tory one.

Volpe named a number of Liberal programs from the recent federal budget and said Canadians won't see them come to fruition if there's an election.

Reynolds pointed out that Canadians won't be seeing the Liberals' spending commitments outlined in the budget "for three or four years, anyway," and added that Harper will "show Canadians how this country can be run -- so Quebecers will be proud to be part of Canada."

The attacks on Liberals continued as former Ontario Tory leader Mike Harris and former Reform party leader Preston Manning weighed in.

"The greatest threat to national unity is what the Liberals have apparently done in Quebec through what's being investigated by the Gomery inquiry," said Manning.

"And for them to pretend that any national unity problem that's created now is someone else's responsibility is simply not believable."

Harris agreed, adding that "getting rid of (corruption) will bring the country together."

Harris and Manning wrote a Fraser Institute report earlier this week that called for the elimination of the federal role in health care provision, among other things.

But Volpe is counting on the public to demand that the opposition wait for Judge Gomery's final report before pushing the election button.

"As long as the public and stakeholders in good government decide that they don't want an election until Gomery gives the report, then we will be in office to do what we were elected to do. We have an obligation to the general public to provide the kinds of programs that we put forward in our budget."

Broadbent, however, said waiting for Gomery might just make things worse for the government.

"I think we're going to see more fallout from the Liberals," he said.