BCWF CLUB MAILER - OCTOBER 22 2009
URGENT MESSAGE
To: Fellow Members of the BC Wildlife Federation:
We are finally on the cusp of historic change in Canadian politics. With the birthday of Joan
Cook, a Senator from Newfoundland and Labrador, there is now truly a minority government in
Ottawa.
In neither the House of Commons nor the Senate is there one party which holds unquestioned
sway. You see, Ms. Cook turned 75, which means she must resign from the Senate. Now with
only 52 seats, the Liberal Party of Canada can no longer prevent legislation from passing and
becoming law by themselves. They must now ally with others to pass or defeat legislation just
as the all the parties in the House of Commons must.
There will be three more seats come available by January 1st, two Liberal and one Independent.
So after Prime Minister Steven Harper appoints Conservatives to fill the vacancies the Senate
will be divided 50 Con / 50 Lib / 5 Ind. This not only means that the parties are balanced but
that the Independents’ votes will hold great sway.
Now you might be asking yourself, “Interesting, but what does it mean to me?”
Well, I’ll tell you what it means. “If” Candice Hoeppner’s Private Member’s Bill C-391 (you
remember Bill C-391 don’t you, the Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act,
repeal of long-gun registry ) passes, it’s Second Reading vote November 4th and is sent to
Committee for consideration, it has a greatly improved chance of actually getting through the
Senate and becoming law.
You see by voting to send a Bill to Committee, MPs are agreeing with its intent. And once a Bill
is sent to Committee, it can only be amended if the amendment does not change the intent of
the Bill. As the intent of Ms. Hoeppner’s Bill is only to repeal the long-gun registry and states as
much in a fairly straight forward way, it is unlikely to face amendment.
If an MP has previously stated that they support the intent of a Bill by voting to send it to
Committee, and it comes back from Committee unchanged, it is much harder for them to argue
that they no longer support that intent and vote against it.
There are 308 seats in the House of Commons and a majority is 155. The Conservatives
currently hold 143 of those seats and they can be expected to vote to send C-391 to Committee,
so an additional 13 votes are needed to guarantee passage. If you support the intent of Ms.
Hoeppner’s Bill C-391, I encourage you to write your MP and tell them that you expect them to
vote in favor of C-391. This becomes especially important if you are represented by either a
Liberal or NDP Member of Parliment.
Now, you could just phone or e-mail your MP, but a letter carries more political weight, and
doubly so if it is hand written.
So, please take pen in hand now and write to your MP and help to make Bill C-391 pass and put
an end to the long gun registry.
Michael Fowler,
BCWF Vice-President
and BCWF Firearms Committee Chair
Members of the house of Commons |
