Thursday, April 02, 2009

Ready. Aim at foot. Fire.

It won't come as much surprise to those who have followed my thinking on the federal gun registry that I'd view Michael Ignatieff's declaration that he plans to whip a Senate vote in favour of the registry as an utterly boneheaded stance. And it's doubly so to the extent that it actually feeds into two of the Cons' long-standing hobby-horses, as Harper will be able to blame the Senate for the move even though the strategy comes from Ignatieff himself.

But let's leave that aside for a moment to consider Ignatieff's timing.

After all, the gun registry has been in the news regularly over the past few months, revolving primarily around Garry Breitkreuz' Bill C-301 (which I discussed here). And even after the Harper government effectively signalled its approval for that bill - which would loosen other restrictions beyond the gun registry alone and also invite the Auditor General to criticize gun laws through regular audits - Ignatieff didn't bother to take a position one way or other.

Now, Ignatieff has been presented with a bill in the Senate which is mostly tailored toward doing nothing but dismantling the registry as it concerns long guns. But it's in response to that seemingly lesser threat that he's personally decided to whip his party's vote. And in doing so, he's also used phrasing which suggests that he doesn't see any basic difference between the two bills - which can only make it easier for the Cons to justify ramming C-301 down the Libs' throat (or at least appearing to do so for financial gain).

Again, that calculation is only made worse by Ignatieff's extra misstep in whipping the Senate vote rather than allowing the bill to be voted on by the elected members of the House. But there's plenty of reason to question why Ignatieff would attack both bills simultaneously now after leaving Breitkreuz' bill untouched for months. And the answer figures only to highlight the fact that Ignatieff has once again missed the boat.

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