Jack Layton has a plan for the gun registry a compromise all Canadians can live with. He wants to drop the criminal prohibition for first time non compliers, drop registration fees and respect native treaties and the privacy rights of all gun owners. Sadly for Layton, his plan is a fiction, a farce. His proposal to save the gun registry requires him to introduce a compromise bill, which will then need to be debated, read three times, approved by the Senate and then given Royal Assent ...all in the two days before the registry's fate will be decided. Of course, Layton an intelligent, seasoned politician knows his plan doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of working. But that's OK. Because he doesn't intend for it to succeed. It's just a political ploy. The ploy is aimed not at the government or even the other opposition parties, but at a third of his own caucus the 12 NDP MPs who voted against keeping the registry last time and who are expected to do the same this month. Layton knows that these 12 NDP members, representing rural ridings where the registry is despised, cannot support the registry as is and hope to be re elected.
Read Original at: The National Post (Canada)