Western Producer staff
Last week in Ottawa, the earth moved. On Parliament Hill, it seemed almost possible to hear and feel the political ground shift. The issue was the government’s gun-control legislation.
The ground was shifting toward opponents of the legislation.
As Parliament resumed sitting after a 10-week summer break, it was possible for the first time to imagine that the parliamentary minority – 52 Reform MPs, a handful of Liberal dissidents and unelected Conservatives in the Senate – will succeed in stopping the elected Liberal majority in its tracks.
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Reform MPs, who led the fight against the bill, were quietly predicting victory. After close to a year of fierce opposition that had little apparent effect on government plans, the Reform bravado finally had a ring of credibility to it.
If it turns out to be true, Reform and their supporters can thank the hated Tories for the victory.
At week’s end, the Liberal government seemed to sense the problem.
Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien appointed four new Liberal Senators, putting the Liberals within one of the Tories in the Upper House.
Still, the almost-even balance does not guarantee the government will get its way in the Senate. The Senate Conservative majority has been holding up the gun-control bill by holding public hearings and almost certainly planning to send the legislation back to the House of Commons with amendments sometime this winter.
Last week, the momentum for holding up the bill received a tremendous boost when Ontario officially changed its position and opposed the gun-registration proposal. Under the NDP, Ontario had supported the legislation and provided a strong boost to the embattled federal justice minister, Allan Rock.
In the summer, the Conservatives replaced the NDP as the Ontario government and last week, the new government threw its weight behind the opponents.
This will give encouragement to the Conservative Senators and the dissident Liberals who want the bill sent back to the Commons.
A referral back to the Commons could kill the bill, at least for now. It would give the divided Liberal caucus more headaches as its core of rural dissidents sought to expand their numbers.
More importantly, the Liberals want to end this session of Parliament soon, to begin afresh with a new Throne Speech outlining their vision of the country for the two years preceding the next election.
The plan was to do it shortly after the Oct. 30 Quebec referendum, to prove there is a new federal strategy for the future. However, legislation dies if it is not approved when a parliamentary session ends.
Would the government really want to extend the session for another raucous and divisive gun-control debate?
It puts the Liberal government between a Rock and a hard place – a justice minister Rock committed to gun-control legislation and a hard place inhabited by nasty politics, hostile provincial governments, party dissent and an increasingly threatening and vocal public opposition, minority though it is.
