Faced with propping up his Conservative foes or interrupting the nation's vacation with a summer election, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff shifted to a political holding pattern Thursday, saying he would first read the government's 234-page economic update before making a decision.

With the Liberals gaining in the polls against the scandal-plagued Conservatives, recent chatter over a possible federal election -- which would be the fourth in only five years -- grew to a dull roar in Ottawa this week.

Ironically, Ignatieff's decision -- expected as early as Friday -- could hold more doom for both the NDP and the Bloc than for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's battered Tories.

Indeed, while the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois, both slumping in the polls, aren't eager for an electoral showdown with the surging Grits, Ignatieff's decision could force the lesser opposition parties to stand behind months of tough talk -- or to cower behind the government.

Ignatieff, speaking from a luncheon in Montreal, said he wouldn't be rushed into a decision that would affect millions of Canadians.

"I voted to stimulate the economy," he said, referring to his party's backing of the Conservative's January budget.

But Ignatieff said the government's stimulus program has been so confusing that "you have to have a PhD in economics to actually figure out whether the (money) has gone out the door."

The Liberals have pledged to pull down the government if its quarterly fiscal updates didn't show that billions in stimulus dollars were getting out to recession-plagued cities and provinces across the country.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to suck the wind out of the Liberals' sails, the prime minister delivered an optimistic update in Cambridge, Ont., Thursday which predicted that the economy was already on the road to recovery.

Responding to accusations from both the opposition and Canada's big city mayors that the stimulus has been suspended by bureaucratic holdups, Harper said 80 per cent of the promised $22.7-billion that had been "committed" was "being implemented across this country."

Since January, the Liberals' main strategy has focused on pinning the recession on the government, and signs of a recovery could stifle that approach.

In another defensive move, Harper's finance minister attempted to brand the opposition as political opportunists.

"I think an election is quite possible, unfortunately," Jim Flaherty told CTV's Power Play in Ottawa.

"I think there's at least a 50 per cent chance because the opposition parties are playing chicken with each other," he said.

"I know what people tell me in my riding, I know what the mood is out there, Canadians don't want an election."

Still, NDP MP finance critic Thomas Mulcair called into question Harper's statement that 80 per cent of the stimulus was rolling smoothly out of federal coffers.

"We think the government is making a mistake when they try to con people into believing that 80 per cent of this money has gone out the door," he told Power Play. "It's a con job, it's a shell game."

Despite strong language and a pledge to vote down the economic estimate, however, the NDP dedicated its opposition motion Thursday to pensions -- and not to launching a possible non-confidence vote against the government.

Why?

"We think there would be hell to pay for any party that decided to bring down the government now," said Mulcair.

"We're not going to provoke the confidence motion, but if the liberals do force the issue, we've always voted against the Conservatives."