OTTAWA — The Tory MP spearheading an effort to scrap the controversial long-gun registry says she now knows why a certain Nova Scotia New Democrat hasn’t been returning her calls.
New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer announced Monday he will vote to maintain the registry, despite his long-held opposition to the program.
After pulling up to Parliament Hill in a van emblazoned with a “Scrap the Registry” logo, Manitoba Tory Candice Hoeppner conceded that Stoffer’s vote means a motion to stop her bill in its tracks is likely to pass.
Hoeppner said she’d been trying to reach Stoffer since last Wednesday, but hasn’t given up trying to get at other MPs who could be persuaded to end the registry.
“People are very frustrated with members of Parliament who have turned their back on what they campaigned on and what they promised,” she told reporters.
“We have a couple of days left, I am hoping some of them — even one of them — will change their mind. That’s my job for the next few days.”
Hoeppner’s bill made it to second reading in the House of Commons thanks to the support of 12 Liberal and eight NDP MPS.
But the public safety committee decided it should go no further, after a majority of committee members decided the evidence warranted keeping the program.
On Wednesday, MPs will vote on a motion to end debate on the bill.
NDP Leader Jack Layton says he has persuaded enough of his MPs to change their vote and thwart the Conservatives.
Stoffer said nobody from his party “cajoled, coerced, twisted my arm” to change his vote.
But he said he was “quite dismayed” that the controversy over whether to keep the registry was framed as a battle between urban and rural Canada.
“There is no question that both sides have played politics on this issue, including myself,” he told a news conference. “I just simply find it unfortunate that it has gotten to this stage.”
Stoffer said that if the registry is to stay, improvements need to be made that take into account the best ideas from those who support it and from those who oppose it.
“If we can do that I think we can find a respectful way through this,” he said.
Hoeppner didn’t rule out have discussions with opposition MPs on amendments to the program, specifically around the issue of licensing.
The NDP has proposed merging the current two types of required licence into one, among other amendments.
But Stoffer said he came to his decision on Saturday after Layton told him Prime Minister Stephen Harper had left no room for compromise on the private member’s bill.
Stoffer also said his own informal polling had indicated a majority of his constituents wanted the registry saved and told him so via letters, emails, phone calls.
“It was a challenge there is no question about it. In all the political things I’ve ever had to do this was the most difficult one I’ve chosen,” Stoffer said of his decision.
“When you have a solemn position for so long and you change it, that never looks good in the public eye.”