The List: Only 2 To Go To Repeal Gun Registry

Among those supporting Hoeppner's bill are New Democrats Nathan Cullen, Dennis Bevington, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, and Carol Hughes, and Liberals Larry Bagnell, Wayne Easter and Anthony Rota.

Everyone knows that the idea of a "private vote" going unwhipped is a lotta hoo-hah. Witness the fact that the Bloc will be opposing Bill C-391 en masse even though many of their MPs are from rural areas. One simply applies the whip in a discreet fashion, under such circumstances, if your party leader is so inclined.

However, I fear The NDP and esp. The Liberals (because a few have suggested this to me privately) see Bill C-391 as a means of getting the Gun Registry issue off the table. So when it finally receives royal assent the Libs. blame NDP dissidents, the NDP blame Liberal Senators, and several billions of $s go down the tubes. But, on the other hand, the rurals out in boonyville put away their pitchforks for the time-being.

PS. Meanwhile some NDPers are apparently angry that the Tories are still mistreating them even after they have caved on the issue. For example , NDP groveller Charlie Angus whines graphically he describes his mistreatment at Tory hands even though he has totally fucking debased himself for them.

Bad Signs Re Upcoming Gun Registry Vote

Bad sign number 1:

Jill Fairbrother, spokesperson for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, said private member's bills are traditionally free votes and she does not expect this one will be any different.

Bad sign number 2:

Why is the chair of the Liberal National Caucus supporting the Harper government's Reform Party wet dream of repealing the long gun registry?

North Bay MP Anthony Rota told La Presse Canadienne today that he said he would back Tory efforts to strip law enforcement of a useful public safety tool.

You know, most of the Lib. flip-flops, the sellouts and the prevarications, haven't been terribly harmful just because the Tory's minority position has kept the stakes so small. But a successful repeal of the gun-registry, even if executed through the back door of a private member's bill, would accomplish two things: 1) the Tory base would forgive every previous transgression--the wild spending, the Que. nation stuff, and 2) the Liberal base would ask WTF? Do these people stand for anything anymore? At what point does pragmatism become intellectual and moral vacuity?

The first vote on C-391 is on November 4th.