“We’ve got our mojo back going into the fall,” Liberal MP Scott Brison told the media from the party’s summer caucus in Baddeck, Nova Scotia yesterday. As he arrived on the Liberal Express bus to the meeting, Ignatieff’s again trotted out his new line about how Canadians and Parliament make the rules – not Harper, as he indicated when he pulled his tightly controlled ATV stunt in the North last week.
While in Nova Scotia, Ignatieff had tea with Rita MacNeil (though she’s not openly endorsing anyone), and is apparently toning down the rhetoric, and promises not to declare Harper’s time is up after summer caucus this year, seeing as it worked so well for him last year.
Back in Ottawa, Jack Layton has said that he’ll table a Private Members’ Bill on the long-gun registry, that will have compromises designed to bring those dozen MPs in his party onside to keep them from voting to scrap it. But I’m sure he’ll totally say this wasn’t Ignatieff’s idea. Also, no word yet on which MP is going to give up his or her slot on the Order of Precedence to make this happen. It also gives one pause as to what this will do in the here and now concerning the current bill to scrap the registry that’s coming up for a vote as soon as the House resumes. It also isn’t stopping the Liberals from taking the opportunity to call Layton out, saying that if he doesn’t whip his caucus, the registry is as good as gone. Layton, meanwhile, is apparently holding out hope that he can meet with all the party leaders, and everyone can come to a happy compromise – because Harper is totally prone to governing like that.
Incidentally, the RCMP’s report has been released, finally, and it shows that it’s effective, but misunderstood. Case in point – Conservative MP (and chief apple polisher) Candice Hoeppner immediately came out to say that the report proved that the registry is wasteful and that ineffective. Because they don’t need facts to prove what they already know.
Meanwhile, NDP MPs Bill Siksay and Paul Dewar are renewing calls for nuclear disarmament on what was the First International Day Against Nuclear Tests.
John Baird’s decision not to turn over those staffer emails about the decision to block an Access to Information request hasn’t deterred the opposition, who say they’ll push ahead with demanding them anyway – as is their right as a Parliamentary committee.
Despite rumours that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is “fuming” about the long-form census changes and the rhetoric about the Tamil migrants, his spokesperson says that he’s not – even though both undermine the ethnic outreach he’s been doing for years. On the other hand, people in Alberta are apparently not happy that he’s been so open in courting those ethnocultural communities either. Kenney himself has dropped from sight, so make of that what you will.
In another “balanced” editorial, the official media arm of The Party’s David Akin says that Ignatieff’s summer tour was playing defence, going to Liberal-dominated provinces like Ontario and even the Yukon. Err, except he apparently didn’t look at the ridings Ignatieff visited, which I’m quite sure have shown to be a greater propensity of ridings the Liberals don’t hold rather than ones they do. But since when does fact get in the way of narrative?
And finally, there’s a new report that shows that Vancouver’s safe injection site works, as well as government-funded research that shows that smoking pot can really help with some kinds of chronic pain. Not that these facts will influence what this government already knows about how drugs are bad.
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