Respond, Iggy

Yesterday, we noted that The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is trying to pressure the opposition parties to appoint anti-gun registry MPs to the committee that will consider a bill (C-391) to kill the registry when Parliament resumes in March. They argue that, since a majority in the House passed the bill once, the committees that consider its further progress should reflect this fact. Today, the Winnipeg Free Press has picked up the story, and we learn the CTF position is also that of the Harper Torys.

More importantly, the Free Press has attempted to contact the opposition parties to ask if they are going to play along:

A spokesman for NDP Leader Jack Layton said the NDP has no plans to change their appointee to the committee. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's office did not respond when asked for comment.

I sometimes get the impression that the LPoC brain trust, while paying lip-service to the registry for the benefit of hardcore Liberal supporters (who support it), would really like to see it die quietly in the night so as to be off the table as an election issue in rural Canada. Not responding to this kind of query only exacerbates that impression.

Whereas, I am convinced, fighting C-391 in committee and in the Senate can still kill it. What are the odds that Harper and Co. will go another year without proroguing again, thus resetting the clock on all of their legislation? Given their recent behavior, I would say those odds are pretty high.

(I am also about half-convinced that this is one of those pieces of legislation that the Tories don't really want to ever be signed into law. But that's another post)