In the current climate, Michael Ignatieff may get away with last night’s speech — as he appears to have in regard to his claim (not since repeated) to having had a “publicly-funded education” in Canada. For one thing, in the village called Ottawa, the date of the next election appears to be the only issue that matters to Harper-hating pols and press alike. For another, in this summer of content across the land, most Canadians are still tuned out of politics. As to the minority who may be paying attention amid shortening days and back-to-school preparations, they’re also likely the kind of people who dismiss most political rhetoric as blather.
Still, if a Toronto Star report is accurate, you have to marvel at Mr. Ignatieff’s audacity in claiming that “the NDP will stand for ‘no darn principles’ if leader Jack Layton and the New Democrats fail to support the long-gun registry in a crucial vote this fall in Parliament.” Actually, the word “audacity” doesn’t quite capture it: Frankly, in light of the history of these two political parties, it’s ludicrous for any Liberal to claim advantage over the NDP when it comes to questions of principle. Whether you agree with those principles or not.
I’ve never written about the long-gun registry, and have no pony in the race over whether it survives or is abolished. However, it doesn’t surprise me that members of Jack Layton’s caucus — confronted by Conservatives playing wedge politics and rubbing their hands in glee at the reaction — would be thinking toward the next election and be trying to live up to commitments they made to the folks who sent them to Ottawa in the last one. Any more than it surprises me that Liberal MPs will say or do most anything — even on fundamental issues such as Afghanistan or the Quebecois nation where the party has some history to defend — to re-gain their “rightful” role as Canada’s natural governing party. Whatever commitments they may have made in the past to voters.
