Liberal MP Mauril Belanger was not a happy man today.

The member from Ottawa Vanier was not in the House of Commons yesterday for the vote on the Conservative's tax changes.

The Liberal caucus abstained from voting.

MPs were ordered to do so at a caucus meeting earlier in the day. At that same caucus meeting, Mauril Belanger spoke out against the decision and just before the vote, he told MPs he would disobey the leader's directive and vote against the tax cuts.

Reporters in the gallery could see huddles break out as Liberals tried to find a way to avoid the potential embarrassment of one of their own breaking ranks.

Minutes before the vote, Belanger disappeared. He was not in the House when the vote was called.

The CBC reported the whole incident yesterday on Don Newman's Politics broadcast. Today, an angry Belanger said he "chose not to be there" for the vote.

"That is how I wanted to express myself."

He would not comment on how he felt about the Liberal decision to abstain, or the tax cuts or anything else for that matter. He did stress repeatedly that no one told him he would be expelled from caucus if he voted in the vote. Many Liberals were unhappy with the decision to abstain from another confidence vote in order to avoid an election, especially this vote, but Belanger seems to be the only one who almost went to the wall over it.