TORONTO — Canada's three opposition parties on Monday night voted in the House of Commons to bring down the Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin, contending that the governing party is corrupt.

The 171-133 no-confidence vote had been expected for the last month, since the release of a report by a federal inquiry looking into accusations that the Liberal Party in the late 1990s laundered money and committed fraudulent campaign finance practices in Quebec Province to counter separatist forces. The report said the party had benefited from a kickback scheme.

"In this campaign we will hear nothing but pessimism" from the opposition, Martin said after the vote in a speech that did not mention his party's scandal. "We will fight for a Canada in which no one is left behind."

New parliamentary elections will pit Martin against Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party leader, for the second time in less than two years. Neither candidate is particularly charismatic, and neither has captured the public imagination.

"Canadians are counting on you to give them a clean, honest government," Harper told his party caucus after the vote. "We need an accountable government."

Martin was exonerated of any blame in the scandal by the inquiry, but the opposition hopes to make past misdeeds by the Liberals the major issue of the campaign anyway. The Liberals hope to emphasize their economic accomplishments of bringing down unemployment, cutting taxes and expanding federal budget surpluses.

Since the broad outlines of the corruption scandal were known during the national campaign last year, culminating in a narrow Liberal victory and a wobbly government, many political columnists and academics anticipated a similar result when voters go to the polls in January.

The campaign has already assumed a strident tone, which is likely to drive down turnout by an electorate that prefers its politics tidy and polite.

During a debate last week in the House of Commons, Harper claimed that the Liberals had been "found to have been involved in a massive corruption ring using organized crime to defraud taxpayers."

In response, the Liberals sent Harper a letter from a lawyer warning that the party would bring suit if, outside the House of Commons, he repeated his accusation that there is a link between the Liberals and organized crime. Within the House of Commons, he has parliamentary immunity.