QUEBEC - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says Canadians will likely go to the polls this year and he wants to make sure he does his homework over the next two months.
Dion said Monday he doesn't want a snap election, but added he won't support the next Conservative budget if it's not in the best interests of Canadians.
"I think we'll have an election before 2008," Dion told a news conference. "My duty is to make sure I'm ready in case there's an election in the next two months.
"I can't get up in the House of Commons, for example, to support a budget that would appear to be against people's interests."
The Liberal leader also met briefly with Quebec City Mayor Andree Boucher and spoke to students at College St-Charles Garnier, a high school he attended between 1967 and 1972.
Dion, elected only last December, is meeting with his Liberal caucus in Quebec City on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Liberals hope to regain seats in the area that were lost to the Conservatives and to the Bloc Quebecois.
Eight of the Tories' 10 Quebec MPs come from the Quebec City area and neighbouring Chaudiere-Appalaches region.
On the environment, Dion criticized the Conservatives for not cutting greenhouse gases in the last year.
The former Liberal environment minister said the Conservatives have cancelled "92 per cent" of programs in the fight against climate change.
But Dion noted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is being pushed by public sentiment to restore some of the programs of the previous Liberal government to reduce pollution.
