Crunch time for Layton

The gun registry issue has the NDP Leader in an awkward position.

These are tough times for NDP Leader Jack Layton. A bill up for a vote in September, if it passes, will kill the long-gun registry. Although Layton is a vocal supporter of the registry, he refused to force his MPs to vote against the bill, which means he’ll be held responsible if the registry is killed. The NDP holds the balance of power in the vote, but rural NDP members risk losing their seats if they show support for the controversial gun-control program.

The National Post’s Don Martin conjures some painful imagery to describe Layton’s predicament: he’s “sitting on a high-stakes fence straddling divided public opinion” and “the point is sharp and awkwardly lodged.” Martin writes that “being a rural New Democrat MP is like being tied to the tracks with a fast train on the way” and that Layton is “quite literally, under the gun.” If Layton really is literally under a gun somewhere, let’s hope someone notifies NDP security.

According to an unsympathetic Toronto Star editorial, Layton’s decision not to whip his party is “a choice of expediency over principle.” His excuse is that Bill C-391 was introduced by Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner and that the NDP has a policy of allowing MPs to vote with their conscience on private members’ bills. But “Bill C-391 is a private member’s bill in name only. It has the active support of the government” and is a major policy issue. Layton’s inaction ensures voters “will be left wondering what the NDP really stands for.”

In a video interview with The Mark, political consultant Robin Sears says that although this may be “a real painful leadership moment” for Layton, he could come out of it all right. “Jack’s cool under pressure in handling it, and the grace with which he has treated the dissidents in his own caucus and the critics on both sides is probably going to help him get through it.” Sears predicts that “as soon as Mr. Harper is defeated … the gun registry will be reinstated. So this is all a bit of foolishness in some respects.”

Foolishness? In summertime Canadian politics? Surely he’s mistaken