A New Brunswick Tory MP's plan for student tax relief is headed to a vote next week in a stunning three-week sprint through Parliament.
Fundy-Royal MP John Herron has defied the odds by getting the last of three one-hour debates on his private member's motion M-478 scheduled for Tuesday, when the House of Commons returns from a one-week break.
A vote would likely follow either immediately after the debate wrapped up or the next day.
"I've got to do a lot of work between now and then," Mr. Herron said in noting he needs to get about 30 Liberal MPs on his side to get the motion passed.
"But I wanted to make sure this got to a vote."
Mr. Herron's race with the clock is born out of his fears that the federal Liberals are poised to prorogue Parliament - a move that would kill any unfinished House business.
Mr. Herron's motion calls for allowing graduates to write off 10 per cent of their student loan principal annually over a 10-year period. While it has already drawn the ire of the first three Liberal MPs to speak on the motion in the House, Mr. Herron contends he has already won over several other MPs on the government back benches - including at least two Liberals from New Brunswick.

Student groups have also been increasingly throwing their support behind the motion.
Andrew Black, outgoing president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, said Thursday he's "absolutely shocked" by the counter-arguments one Liberal MP has used to try to shoot down the proposal.
Roy Cullen, a former parliamentary secretary to the finance minister, said in an interview last week that students who have no means for repaying their loans would be more responsible if they didn't go to university or college.
"The implication is that higher education is not a right that should be enjoyed by all Canadians," Mr. Black said.
"It's the irresponsible decisions made by policy makers at the different levels of government who allowed this problem (of mounting student debtloads) to get to this situation," Mr. Black said.
"Those kinds of comments don't bode well for what the Liberals are prepared to do to help students," Mr. Black added.