Thursday, September 16, 2010

Long-Gun Registry politics

We now have NDP MPs, who at a previous reading, voted in favour of scrapping the registry, are now lining up to vote down in final reading.

Some journalists have said whichever way the vote goes, it's a win for Conservatives.  On one hand, if opposition parties do not have enough votes, the bill passes and the registry is done.  On the other hand, if the bill is defeated, it's possible that registry-turncoat rural NDP MPs are in the sights (pun intended) of being blown out of their seats (definite pun) to Conservatives in the next election over this issue. 

Conservative radio and billboard ads in these ridings have been popping up (pun?) and has possibly been the reason why these NDP MPs are changing their tune.  But perhaps that was the Conservative strategy to win either way.

While normally I would say voter memory is almost non-existent, this long-standing issue (pun intended) is much more contentious. 

So I have two questions for you:

1.  Did non-partisan farmers, duck hunters, and libertarians in these ridings vote for the NDP candidates in their riding because of their stance on the long-gun registry?

2.  Are these same folks going to vote against the NDP candidate and for the Conservative candidate?  Are the radio ads and billboards going to affect their view of the NDP candidate?  (Don't forget that the NDP began out of the CCF in rural Western Canada, so there are some deep roots there folks.)

Note that all the Conservatives need are 12 more seats to hold a majority.  They can win these next election in Western Canada (especially BC) and Northern Ontario to get there as long as they hold their current seats.

However close the votes in the House of Commons for or against the gun registry is irrelevant.  If the Conservatives get to the promised land of majorus parliamentus, they'll just shoot it down with a double barrel shot gun with no problem.

6 comments:

robins111 said...

Yah they do vote based on the entire firearms act.

More to the point, I suspect you'll see some interesting times in their home offices very shortly.

The registry was just one of the most odious parts of the legislation and most beleived it would be easy to remove.

The compromise that jacko's talkining about was already in place, firearms owners were prepared to deal with some of the other nonsense in due time, but get rid of 'this' to start with.

Grumpy Old Man said...

Short answer is yes, gun owners will vote based on how the MP votes on the registry.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, a no loser for conservatives this time around. It would be smarter for the NDP to let this squeeze by so they can move onto other issues and hopefully save their butts. (real conservative)

L said...

I hope that both Liberals and NDP who vote against will be punished at the polls. I am an urban voter who wants the long-registry shut down, so this is not simply a rural issue. It is about wasteful national programs that are expensive and have little value for money.

Anonymous said...

If ANY PART of the long gun registry is left in place and the lieberals get back into power they will use Order In Council to get it back to its original state or worse.

Rob C

MORFINY BOOKS WORLD REVIEW said...

I have been out of Canada too long to have kept up with gun law, but we never had any trouble when I was a kid in Perth County, the guns up on the rack in the woodshed, and nobody got hurt.

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