1. Gun control versus caucus control. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives wasted no time in mocking Michael Ignatieff’s vow yesterday to whip his caucus and force Liberal MPs to vote against a government effort to scrap the controversial long-gun registry.
“Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff once again turned his back on rural Canadians by clearly stating he still supports the wasteful and ineffectual long-gun registry,” the Conservatives charged in an internal memo to supporters and their MPs sent out yesterday. “Michael Ignatieff’s definition of tough on crime is to crack down on farmers and duck hunters.”
Mr. Ignatieff reignited the battle over the abolishment of the long-gun registry in a speech yesterday to Canadian police officers. He told them that he supported the registry but with certain improvements.
A Liberal government, he said, would no longer make it a criminal offence for the first time that gun owners fail to register their firearms; the Liberals would also streamline paperwork in an effort to make registration as simple as possible.
In his remarks, the Liberal Leader said his caucus would not support Tory MP Candice Hoeppner’s legislation to abolish the registry; the vote will be whipped, which is unusual for a private member’s bills as MPs are allowed to vote their conscience.
A whipped vote could cause big problems for the Liberal Leader as eight of his MPs voted with the government last November, supporting the Hoeppner bill to abolish the registry. Her bill is to come back for third reading next month.
This rancour and disunity in the Liberal ranks is not lost on the Tories: “The choice is clear for these [eight dissenting] Liberal MPs – you either vote to SCRAP the long-gun registry, or you vote to KEEP the long-gun registry,” the Conservative memo says. “It’s as simple as that. No shifting, no sliding.”
“Michael Ignatieff’s long-standing position on the long-gun registry shows once again he hasn’t listened to his own Liberal Caucus Members, let alone Canadians,” according to the memo.
Not so, says, Liberal Whip Rodger Cuzner. He told CTV’s Power Play yesterday that Mr. Ignatieff has listened to the concerns of the MPs who were not supportive and believes these changes address those concerns. “We’re looking forward to the full support of caucus,” he said.
What about the NDP? There are cracks in that caucus, too.
NDP Leader Jack Layton had allowed his MPs to vote their conscience on this issue – 12 of them did just that last November. Yesterday, however, he would not commit to allowing a free vote again when the Hoeppner bill comes back to the House.
“Well that’s a big if. I’ll address it then,” he told reporters when asked if the NDP MPs who voted against it were not satisfied with the changes to the registry that he wants to bring in.
2. The Guergis hot potato. The scandal now being dubbed “Rahimelena” appears to be losing some appeal in official Ottawa.
The distancing began a couple of days ago. On CTV’s Question Period Sunday it was clear that Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay was uncomfortable with the personal aspects of the affair – allegations of prostitutes, cocaine use, strip clubs and unsavoury characters.
Her position was interesting, given she was the MP who put forward the motion at the government operations committee last week to probe the business aspects of the affair beginning Wednesday.
That motion had been supported by the NDP’s Pat Martin – until yesterday. In a surprise move, Mr. Martin announced his party wanted to delay the probe (Rahim Jaffer is scheduled to appear before the committee Wednesday) until the RCMP finishes its investigation.
It is not clear, however, where the RCMP investigation is at, although the CBC is reporting that the private investigator behind the allegations, Derrick Snowdy, returned yesterday from the Bahamas to meet with the Mounties.
Further proof the New Democrats have cold feet came in Question Period yesterday, when NDP Leader Jack Layton did not ask one question about the affair. In a scrum after Question Period, Mr. Layton called his party’s strategy of patience, a “sensible” one.
Indeed, there is also the potential of the committee turning into what Mr. Martin described as a “circus” – something that won’t play well in the court of public opinion. And speaking of that, EKOS pollster Frank Graves is in the midst of testing the Guergis affair.
“I am seeing some very surprising results,” he said. Although, he cannot yet disclose what he is picking up, he said that he can “understand why opposition might want to drop it like a hot potato.”
“I think people are extremely turned off by the whole affair,” he said.
(File photo: Todd Korol/Reuters)
