Trost On The Long Gun Registry

If this is how the maneuvering went, then good on Jack Layton:

At first, C-301 looked like it was going to pass the House of Commons. With 143 Conservative votes, Garry’s bill needed less than a dozen votes from independent and Opposition MPs to become law. Supporters of C-301 received assurances from rural Opposition MPs that we had the necessary votes to pass the legislation.

However, two things started to happen: NDP members began to be pressured by their leadership (Jack Layton) not to vote the way they had promised; and the Bloc Quebecois brought forward a motion on the long-gun registry in the House of Commons.

While the Bloc motion supporting the long-gun registry passed the House, it only passed by five votes because of abstentions from Opposition MPs (who had previously said they sided with the Conservatives.)

I say "if" because Trost seems to be pretending that C-391 has a hope in hell with a Lib. dominated Senate, and it does not, so he is clearly prone to erroneous statements.

(PS. "Trost" is Brad Trost is the Tory MP representing the riding of Saskatoon—Humboldt.)

Eat The Rubber Chicken, Win A Handgun

Here's what you might win when you go see Garry Breitkreuz's talk re. repealing the long-gun registry at the annual meeting of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association on April 18th:

From the map there don't seem to be any nearby farms, so you can't engage in that old Tory sport of getting drunk and shooting barn-yard animals, but you're barely 20 minutes from downtown T.O., where Liberal men wander about in fish-net stockings, and not far from Brampton, either, where I hear they have a lot of dark skinned types.

A target rich environment, in other words.

Update: Invite WITHDRAWN.

Do Tories Have The Votes To Repeal Gun Registry?

Saskatoon Tory Brad Trost has a shaky command of facts. Nevertheless, his assessment of the prospects of Bill C-301, which would amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act so as to eliminate the long gun registry, is troubling:

Getting Breitkreuz`s Private Members’ Bill passed into law will not be an easy fight. Repealing the gun registry will require 154 votes and the Conservatives have only 143 members. We need the votes of at least 11 Opposition MPs. Preliminary vote counts indicate that we have more than the 11 votes necessary. However, even if we get 154 votes in favour of Breitkreuz’s bill, there will be a fierce fight in committee and later in the Senate to have the legislation made into law.

So, can the Tories pass C-301? Well, Trost aside, the prospects don't look good.

For one thing, its a Private Member's Bill, which tend to go nowhere. The boys at WS think its just another one of those laws that the Tories have dangled over the base under the assumption that they will never become law:

The probability that a private member’s bill without official government support, which is what C-301 is, will be adopted by the House of Commons is small. If the House does not get to vote on the bill in third reading, no damage is done to the power of the state and the support of some gun owners will have been bought at a cheap political price.

They also don't think the votes are there in the 1st place:

If there is a vote, it is unlikely that the bill will gather a majority; Harper can then claim that he has no choice but to embrace the Liberals’ law.

Other bill supporters are equally sceptical.