In time for the vote, as it happens

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 10:17 PM - 0 Comments

We learned via the Star’s Susan Delacourt that MP Scott Simms “has a raw, recent and personal reason for his decision to support the long-gun registry in the Commons today. Simms’ father, Reginald, took his own life with a long gun in June.”

After the revelation, delivered in Wednesday’s in camera caucus meeting, “many MPs were in tears and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was visibly emotional.” In a separate blog post, Delacourt elaborates:

Reportedly Ignatieff choked up when it was time to take the floor again and caucus members lined up to embrace Simms.

It makes all the games and the jeering and the attacks look pretty petty.

Indeed: politics can be such a cynical game. Thank goodness, with emotions running as high as they were, somebody found the strength, and the courage, to leak the story to the Star.

The gun registry vote: a shaken MP, an unsatisfying debate

By John Geddes - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 7:06 PM - 0 Comments

Just before this evening’s vote on the gun registry I ran into Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer in the foyer of the House of Commons. He’s usually a jovial, stolid sort of guy—voted most collegial in this year’s Maclean’s survey of MPs. This evening, though, he didn’t look so good.

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Long-gun registry saved

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 6:54 PM - 0 Comments

As projected, the House of Commons has approved a motion of the public safety committee to defeat Bill C-391, by a margin of 153 to 151.

The Liberals and NDP have issued official responses. The Prime Minister said the following to reporters after the vote.

After 15 years, opposition to the long-gun registry is stronger in this country than it has ever been.  With the vote tonight, its abolition is closer than it has ever been.  The people of the regions of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals and we will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished.

The Commons: Iggy’s sharp right hook

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 5:49 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. Michael Ignatieff stood first to express his concern for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in the wake of hurricane Igor, second to lament for the Finance Minister’s speech the other day.

“Yesterday the Minister of Finance delivered a wild partisan rant,” Mr. Ignatieff. “I assume that the Prime Minister approved this speech because, after all, he makes the rules, but what I wanted to know is whether the Prime Minister understands that this was a classic example of the politics of fear, division, envy and resentment at a time when Canadians need to hear a message of hope and unity.”

There were several bursts of laughter from the government side.

Stephen Harper stood next, first to express his concern for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in the wake of hurricane Igor, second to half-heartedly dismiss the Liberal leader’s lament.

“As for the government’s economic policy, we are, of course, providing hope and opportunity through the economic action plan,” he ventured, “and stand strongly against the tax and spend policies of the Liberal Party.”

Various Conservatives stood to applaud. Continue…

With an hour and a fifteen minutes to go

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 4:30 PM - 0 Comments

Messrs Ignatieff and Layton are promising that all of their respective sides will be in attendance for the vote on C-391 that is now expected to take place at about 5:45pm. Independent MP Andre Arthur stood before QP and informed the House that he remained opposed to the long-gun registry. Liberal MP Scott Simms, who had been the subject of some speculation this morning, is expected to vote against C-391. Postmedia’s Janice Tibbetts has the NDP’s Niki Ashton still in favour of C-391.

If all that holds true, the committee report to be voted on tonight will be approved by a count of 153-151, thus defeating Bill C-391 and preserving the long-gun registry.

Why oppose registering guns but support licencing their owners?

By John Geddes - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 3:12 PM - 0 Comments

I’ve just been listening to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews responding to opposition MPs in Question Period on the gun registry. Toews repeatedly stressed that even though Conservatives want to scrap the long-gun registry, they continue to support licencing gun owners and registering restricted weapons, such as handguns. Why is registering rifles and shotguns unacceptable, but those other aspects of the firearms regulatory system are just fine? Toews objects to the long-gun registry on grounds that “criminals don’t register their guns.” But the bad guys don’t apply for licences or register handguns either. So why the inconsistent approach?

Recorded division

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 10:51 AM - 0 Comments

The actual text that will be put before the House this evening at approximately 5:30pm is as follows.

The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security has the honour to present its second report.

In accordance with its Order of Reference of Wednesday, March 3, 2010, your Committee has considered Bill C-391, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act (repeal of long-gun registry), and agreed on Thursday, June 3, 2010, to report the following:

That this Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1 (1), recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with Bill C-391, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act (repeal of long-gun registry), because the Committee has heard sufficient testimony that the bill will dismantle a tool that promotes and enhances public security and the safety of Canadian police officers.

There are a total of 304 votes in play—308 seats minus three vacancies and the Speaker, who only votes in the event of a tie. At our last count, there were 153 MPs committed to defeating C-391, 150 MPs committed to seeing it passed. That breaks down, by our math, as follows. Continue…

Junius explains that gun-registry math

By Colby Cosh - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 1:34 AM - 0 Comments

The Globe and Mail has finally explained where a Toronto Chief of Police and dozens of gullible journalists and politicians got the idea that the national firearms registry costs $4 million a year. I’ve watched this figure get repeated countless times over the past month or so, and every single time I kept returning with furrowed brow to the Treasury Board estimates, which put the combined operating and transfers cost of firearms registration at $22 million, just to the RCMP, for 2010-11. (The overall cost for registries and licensing infrastructure comes to $78 million.)

That’s not counting the costs to other federal agencies—most especially the cost to Corrections Canada, estimated loosely at $10 million for fiscal ’08-’09. Certainly the commentators who were soiling themselves over the PBO’s estimates for penological costs of Conservative law-and-order measures wouldn’t want to just ignore the money spent on keeping gun-registry offenders locked up longer, would they? Including the cost in registrant time and effort would drive the figure higher still; surely the Globe is bound to be giving the program a break in only revising the cost upward by a factor of 16½.

If the Globe is right, it seems only a bit of sloppily written verbiage in the new report on the registry—interpreted by dissimulators with badges, and faithfully broadcast by writers with poor financial instincts—could possibly have led anyone to believe the gun registry is a bargain. (The Firearms Centre in Miramichi has 240 federal employees, guys! $4 million wouldn’t cover 12 weeks of payroll expenses, right?) And maybe I’m just some Western flake, but in retrospect it does seem as though the propagation of $4 million figure was possible only because the RCMP played undisguised politics with the report, dawdling over a “translation” (a tactic that the Conservatives somehow ended up taking most of the blame for) and making sure to pass it around to friendly, gullible media outlets in a timely way before the vote on C-391. All of which, now, can serve only the electoral interests of the Conservatives themselves—keeping alive the hated totem and allowing them to exploit the real financial numbers in their search for a Commons majority.

[UPDATE, 10:22 am: Or not. The Citizen's board smacks down the Globe this morning, and the Globe seems to have mis-identified the source of the figure within the report—the actual source being a reference to another report to the RCMP by a government IT consultancy, Pleiad Canada. So could we have that document, or is it already too late to bother?]

Speaking for the victims

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 6:15 PM - 0 Comments

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, in QP this afternoon. “Mr. Speaker, in fact, we are listening to victims. And victims want dangerous, repeat criminals in prison. They want safe streets. They don’t want the dangerous criminals on the streets. And they want laws that target the criminals. They don’t believe that the long-gun registry targets criminals. In fact, it targets law-abiding hunters and farms and sportspeople right across this country. It’s not a law we need in Canada.”

National Victims of Crime Ombudsman Sue O’Sullivan, about an hour later. “In the few short weeks since my appointment, I have had the opportunity to begin an important dialogue with national victims’ groups on a number of issues, including the long-gun registry,” explained Ms. O’Sullivan. “Though there is no consensus, the majority of victims’ groups we have spoken to have made it clear: Canada should maintain its long-gun registry.”

Today in automotive news

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 11:11 AM - 16 Comments

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner is presently speaking to reporters on the Hill in front of her Scrap The Registry van.

An hour from now, Michael Ignatieff will take questions while standing in front of the Liberal Express bus.

153-150

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 9:45 AM - 0 Comments

Peter Stoffer has decided to switch sides as it relates to House votes on the gun registry, which, by this unofficial count, makes it 153 votes against C-391, which, in theory, clinches defeat for the bill.

CBC has the government trying to arrive at a Plan B in the event C-391 does fail.

The paramount importance of public sentiment

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 5:38 PM - 0 Comments

The Prime Minister vows to continue not resting until the long gun registry is abolished.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the federal long-gun registry will someday be scrapped, regardless of what happens to a Tory backbencher’s bill on the issue when Parliament returns next week … ”Opposition to it has not diminished; it has only increased,” he said.

He again denounced the registry, which was introduced by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien in 1995, as a “large-scale operation that targeted the wrong people” — including hunters, farmers, outdoorsmen and women, as well as police officers “who understand the reality of these communities.” ”These people will never accept this registry because they know it is ineffective and wasteful, and the party I lead will not rest until the day it is abolished,” Harper said to applause.

By Harris-Decima’s findings, public opinion has indeed been shifting, but in the exact opposite direction.

If they really wanted to get rid of the long gun registry

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 17, 2010 at 1:30 PM - 0 Comments

An interesting exchange from John Baird’s news conference yesterday.

Reporter: Mr. Baird, if scrapping the gun registry is so important and if the Prime Minister feels so strongly about it, as the Conservatives do, then why not just bury it in a money bill and make it a confidence motion?

Baird: I don’t anticipate that you’ll see that this fall.

Swing votes

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:10 PM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Niki Ashton will disclose tomorrow how she plans to vote on C-391. Peter Stoffer, previously committed to voting in favour of C-391, says he’ll have something to say on Monday. John Rafferty, another yes vote, says his mind hasn’t changed. Bruce Hyer says he won’t vote for a Liberal motion that would effectively scrap C-391.

Let's all hate Toronto

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:46 AM - 0 Comments

John Baird, today. “I share the disappointment of many of my colleagues that people who had fought so long, so hard, so passionately against the registry are now feeling the pressure from the two Toronto leaders, Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton,” Baird said. ”We’re all accountable. If we make clear and unambiguous promises in our constituencies and then face pressure from Toronto elites, [MPs are] accountable for that.”

Toronto Star, May 2006. Baird calls himself an “Ottawa boy” but concedes after living in the Big Smoke for about 10 years, Toronto is in his veins. He regularly visits the city, staying at his old apartment, which he sublet to a friend. ”I miss Toronto,” he said.

152-151

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:18 AM - 0 Comments

Carol Hughes says she’ll oppose C-391, which makes it 152 MPs opposed to the bill, 151 in favour.

“Should Ottawa have spent a billion dollars on this thing? I say no way, and so do most people around here. But that start-up money is gone, and I want to look forward, not back. I think many people were surprised to learn this month that it now only costs a dime per Canadian to keep the registry running,” Hughes said.

Jack Layton wants to talk compromise with the Prime Minister.

Jack Layton as Joe Namath

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 4:32 PM - 0 Comments

Without naming names, the NDP leader says the votes will be there to defeat Bill C-391. At last check, the count was tied at 151, with only the NDP’s Niki Ashton uncommitted.

In other news, Jean-Yves Roy, the Bloc MP whose exit was the subject of some speculation, will be in his seat for at least the first vote on C-391.

Yankee, go … get 'em

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 2:35 PM - 0 Comments

The “revelation” (shock! horror!) that the NRA has been offering advice to Canadian groups opposed to the long gun registry — cough, for a decade — has the Liberals watering at the mouth quivering with indignation. Why, Liberal House leader David McGuinty was so furious at this foreign intervention that he was forced to call a press conference:

McGuinty says the U.S. gun lobby has no business being involved at all in a Canadian debate.

”We are here to say that the National Rifle Association and its members and its leadership should butt out of Canada’s gun registry debate,” he said.

He said the Harper government shouldn’t be paying any attention to an American voice.

”This is a government that is choosing to listen to a powerful foreign influence over our own police, our victims’ groups, our medical experts, in fact the majority of Canadians when it comes to gun control.”

Well, bang on. The last thing we need are powerful Americans coming up here and telling us how we should … What’s that? Oh. Never mind:

Nancy Pelosi’s office insists that the most powerful woman in American politics is not out to target the “dirty oil” from Alberta’s oilsands, but green groups and the opposition Liberals in Ottawa wish she would.

The U.S. House Speaker met Thursday morning with representatives from the Pembina Institute and Environment Defence, two groups highly critical of oilsands production.

“As the main customer of tarsands oil, the U.S. has a leadership role to play where our governments at home are failing,” said Environmental Defence executive director Rick Smith…

Liberal environment critic David McGuinty praised Pelosi and the Obama administration for trying to force change in Canada.

“A customer has come calling and said we’d like to see an improvement in the product we buy,” McGuinty told an Ottawa news conference.

That Harper government: they just won’t listen to powerful foreign influences.

Shock! Horror! American gun lobby group helps Canadian counterparts!

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Last night the CBC reported that America’s National Rifle Association has cooperated with Canadian lobby groups opposing the gun registry. The NRA hasn’t spent any money in Canada, but Canadian gun advocate Tony Bernardo says it has given “logistical support” to a Canadian lobby group and “they freely give us anything else,” although he did not elaborate.

How did CBC’s Senior Investigative Correspondent Diana Swain uncover this scandalous bit of information? Bernardo said so in a published interview a decade ago. Continue…

A phony gun battle

By Charlie Gillis - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 7:35 AM - 0 Comments

JONATHAN HAYWARD/CP

If he had his way, John Hipwell would spend more time selling guns, and less filling out paperwork. His store in Virden, Man., Wolverine Supplies, sells everything from deer rifles to semi-automatic handguns—a trade that requires him to wade through import permits, sales records and registration certificates on a daily basis. So when Candice Hoeppner, the Conservative MP from a neighbouring constituency, drafted a private member’s bill that would relieve one small part of his burden, Hipwell cheered. Canada’s long-gun registry has been “a waste of time and money,” he says, and Hoeppner’s proposal to shut it down would make life easier for merchants like him. As for concerns about public safety, Hipwell dismisses them with a wave. “The bottom line is that anyone wishing to acquire a firearm is going to have to get a possession and acquisition licence,” he says. “He’s going to get checked.”

It is the least publicized aspect of legislation that has resurrected a stubbornly undead issue, and one worth considering as the bill faces a crucial vote in the Commons next week. Yes, Bill C-391 would be a death sentence for laws requiring gun owners to register every single one of their hunting rifles and shotguns. But if they pass into law, Hoeppner’s amendments will leave the other, arguably more onerous, component of the Canadian Firearms Program intact—namely, the licensing regime through which the government assembles personal information on gun owners themselves.

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151-151

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 13, 2010 at 2:07 PM - 0 Comments

Malcolm Allen has apparently decided to vote against C-391, which puts our unofficial count back to a tie.

The last NDP MP yet to comment is Niki Ashton. Carol Hughes has said she will not vote in favour of a Liberal motion to scrap C-391, but has not committed to voting one way or another should C-391 come to a vote on third reading.

Show your work

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 10, 2010 at 2:46 PM - 0 Comments

In light of conflicting counts circulating as to upcoming votes on Bill C-391, here is how we arrived at our most recent tally of 151-150.

In favour of Bill C-391 are counted 143 Conservatives, two independents and NDP MPs Bruce Hyer, John Rafferty, Nathan Cullen, Dennis Bevington, Jim Maloway and Peter Stoffer. That’s a total of 151 votes.

Against Bill C-391 are counted 75 Liberals, 48 Bloc Quebecois and 27 NDP MPs. That includes three New Democrats who have switched their votes: Charlie Angus, Claude Gravelle and Glenn Thibeault. That’s a total of 150 votes.

Not counted are the votes of Peter Milliken (the Speaker only votes in the event of a tie), Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Maurizio Bevilacqua (both of whom have officially resigned) and Inky Mark (who is expected to soon resign).

Three New Democrats who voted in favour of Bill C-391 when it was last put to the House—Malcolm Allen, Niki Ashton and Carol Hughes—are counted as undeclared at this point. Ms. Hughes has said she will not support a Liberal motion to scrap C-391, but she has not said what she would do in a straight up or down vote on the bill. Mr. Allen and Ms. Ashton have not, to my knowledge, committed one way or the other.

The one caveat is the vote of Bloc MP Jean Yves-Roy, who would seem to be deciding if or when he may vacate his seat. He has previously voted against C-391.

151 to 150

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 10, 2010 at 11:57 AM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Claude Gravelle says he’ll vote against Bill C-391. That makes it 151 votes in favour of C-391, 150 against.

That leaves just three NDP votes still in play—Malcolm Allen, Niki Ashton and Carol Hughes.

The long-gun registry’s value is only symbolic

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, September 10, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

KEVIN FRAYER/CP

One thing all the parties agree on is the vital importance of the long-gun registry. Whether it’s a costly and intrusive waste of time, as the Tories maintain, or an effective tool of law enforcement, as the Liberals insist, or both, as I gather is the NDP’s view, it’s widely seen as a critical, make-or-break issue.

And like most critical, make-or-break issues in politics, it’s of little actual importance to anyone. Whether the registry lives or dies will have no impact whatsoever on the vast majority of Canadians, and scarcely more on the minority that pay it close attention.

Take the cost, first. It is certainly true that the costs of setting up the registry were substantial, and outrageous. If the issue were whether it was worth spending $2 billion just to draw up a list, not of handguns or newly purchased rifles (both are subject to separate procedures), but of the rifles people already owned, I doubt there’d be many takers.

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