Liberal anticipates gun registry defeat

—– Original Message —–

Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 10:43 AM
Subject: Liberal anticipates gun registry defeat

>
> Liberal anticipates gun registry defeat
>
>
>
> From the Western Producer, 23/09/04
>
> Liberal anticipates gun registry defeat
>
> By Barry Wilson
> Ottawa bureau
>
> The minority Liberal government that faces Parliament for the first time
> Oct. 4 may find itself confronting a political revolt over the long gun
> registry, says a dissident rural Liberal MP.
>
> “The firearms issue probably cost us our majority,” said Huron-Bruce MP
> Paul Steckle, re-elected June 28 for a fourth term as one of the few
> rural Ontario Liberals to hold on in traditional Conservative ridings.
>
> He was chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee in the last
> Parliament and expects to play a key role on the committee in the new
> Parliament.
>
> Steckle has consistently defied the Liberal majority by voting against
> funding for the controversial long gun registry, and he was the only
> rural Ontario Liberal to keep his majority in the last election, winning
> by close to 10,000 votes.
>
> “All around me, other Liberals were going down,” Steckle said.
>
> One of the few other Liberal rural survivors was Rose Marie Ur in
> Middlesex-Kent-Lambton, who also voted against the gun registry but
> still came within several hundred votes of losing to a Conservative.
>
> Steckle said it is a message prime minister Paul Martin must heed if he
> hopes to strengthen the Liberals in rural areas in the next election,
> expected within 18 months.
>
> He thinks the numbers may exist in the new House of Commons to starve
> the gun registry of funds the next time a funding vote is held.
>
> The 99-member Conservative caucus is against the registry, as is one
> Independent. Although New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton supports
> the registry, the party voted against the registry in past Parliaments.
>
> And with Martin promising more free votes, Steckle said a number of
> Liberals also may oppose continued funding for the program. It would
> require 155 votes to defeat a gun registry funding request.
>
> Over budget
>
> Last year, auditor general Sheila Fraser reported that the gun registry,
> which former justice minister Allan Rock said in 1995 would cost a net
> $2 million to implement, would cost up to $1 billion by next year.
>
> Once he became prime minister last December, Martin promised to keep the
> program but to fix it, recognizing it is popular in Quebec and among
> many urban voters.
>
> On the eve of the May 23 election call, the government announced changes
> that critics dismissed as meaningless.