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)
I look to most political leaders today, and I see them owing more to Niccolò Machiavelli than to Thomas Jefferson..
ReplyDeleteWhile I oppose the gun registry, based mostly upon pragmatic reasons, as opposed to philosophical reasons (I don't own and likely will never own a gun).. it is fair to say that most political decisions are made with a view to gaining or holding power.
Michael Ignatieff is caught between a rock and a hard place.
He is likely, as a man of some intellect, aware of the failings of the registry system and his party's sorry record in its implimentation.. and would rather that he not have to deal with it at all.
As you say - he has supporters who, for whatever reason.. see this as a major piece of necessary social engineering.. while knows it could at election time become a very significan achilles heal.
As ye sow..
I don't think Ignatieff is allowed to respond unless he gets the OK from Donolo first. Ignatieff no longer runs the party.
ReplyDelete..lol.. too true AA.
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ReplyDeleteDon't be hard on Ardvark TG. Rare is the time he ventures from his own safe little world, where he can delete comments that expose him as a fool. It took some courage for hom to come here.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, as for the topic at hand, I think Ignatieff better be very careful. I am not concerned about no response, since I see no reason to allow this grpup dictate when and what he does with committee membership. I am content to wait and see, however I have been withholding my donation until I see what the LPC do on this file.
Donation? I thought you were not a Liberal supporter?
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