PUBLICATION:              Calgary Herald

DATE:                         2004.02.09

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  Opinion

PAGE:                         A8

SOURCE:                   Calgary Herald

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caught in the crosshairs: Prime minister's two-step on free votes will cost him rural support

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a general election expected in spring, Paul Martin has just handed the Conservative Party of Canada a clean shot at an easy target by waffling on the gun registry.

Earlier reports from Sarnia Liberal MP Roger Gallaway had suggested the prime minister would allow a free vote on future funding for the egregious money-sink the registry has become. Had that been so, the registry would have joined gay marriage and the Maher Arar inquiry as issues punted over the sidelines into electoral irrelevance.

But the ball is back in play, thanks to a Martin clarification Thursday that there would be no free vote on the registry after all.

Strange. A free vote would have played well in rural and western Canada, where for many people it is a trigger issue, so to speak. And Liberal MPs in rural Ontario ridings could have better faced hostile constituents on the hustings, proclaiming they bravely voted against the party.

Best of all, free votes are part of the democratic reform agenda Martin also co-opted from the former Canadian Alliance. The so-called reform action plan presented to the House of Commons was underwhelming in its scope, with gay marriage -- the most obvious issue for a free vote -- in solitary confinement at the Supreme Court of Canada.

A free vote on gun-registry funding would have been great optics, with this subtle advantage. A vote against extra funding is just that -- a vote against extra funding, and readily justifiable on grounds of good government.

But, at the same time, a different audience could have been assured the vote in no way implied a repeal of the legislation. Talk about having it both ways.

Still, Martin took a pass. Perhaps it was that the Liberals have a billion-dollar emotional investment in this boondoggle to match the taxpayers' financial one. And to admit error would have been uncharacteristic.

Sensing the reversal might be hurting them, the Liberals attempted damage control on Friday. Government House leader Jacques Saada hinted in the Commons the funding might not survive Parliament's approval of departmental spending estimates.

While such an outcome might salve opponents to the registry, the waffling on free votes won't be soon forgotten. And Canadians will go into the expected spring election remembering the $1 billion wasted registering long guns could have been better spent on security in a dozen ways.

Conservatives will doubtless be quick to point this out, once the election campaign begins. That, and the shallow pretence which Martin's promise of more free votes really is. Martin has just blown a high-calibre hole in his democratic reform agenda.

Calgary Herald Editorial Board