REGINA — Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton says enough votes will be coming from his party to potentially save the gun registry.
He made the comment as he emerged from his party’s caucus meeting in Regina on Tuesday.
“My commitment to Canadians was to put forward an approach to fix the registry,” Layton said. “After our discussions, an overwhelming majority of our rural caucus is supporting my approach and I know that this is going to work.”
A bill to kill the registry passed second reading by a vote of 164 to 137, because of support from 12 NDP members in rural ridings and eight Liberal MPs.
But four of the 12 New Democrats later said they’d changed their minds, and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff declared that all of his MPs must follow party policy in support of the registry. That put the numbers a lot closer.
Layton did not immediately say Tuesday which of the remaining eight holdouts from his party have now indicated they’ll support the registry. But when asked directly if he expected most of the NDP rural caucus to vote to keep the registry in place, he said: “That’s what we expect to happen. Yes, indeed.
“I am very confident that the votes that are needed to continue the registry so that it can be fixed will indeed be there and I’m feeling very optimistic about what lies ahead as a result.”
Pressure had been on the NDP from all sides.
The Conservatives began an ad campaign earlier in the week encouraging the 20 opposition MPs who voted in favour of the bill “to keep their word to their constituents and vote to scrap the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry.”
But groups that want to maintain the registry, including the Canadian Labour Congress, were in Regina on Tuesday to deliver their message to New Democrats.
As well, Ignatieff had urged Layton to whip his caucus together and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe had accused him of lacking leadership on the gun registry, saying Layton was “the only leader that’s not playing his leader role.”