Ignatieff challenges NDP on gun registry vote

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieffsays NDP Leader Jack Layton and his deputy Thomas Mulcair can side with the police or Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the fate of the federal long-gun registry.

"Make up your mind, Jack. The hour is getting late," Ignatieff said during an address to the Liberal caucus on the first day of the party's summer retreat in Baddeck, N.S.

Layton has indicated he will give his MPs a free vote on Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to repeal the registry.

The challenge comes after MPson a parliamentary committee studying the issue received anRCMP report on the Canadian Firearms Program thatcalled the registry a "critical component" of the program and an important tool for law enforcement.

During the last session of Parliament, Hoeppner's bill, C-391, passed second reading 164-137 in a House vote with support from 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals, most of whom represented northern and rural ridings.

But since then, Ignatieff has declared future votes on the bill whipped, meaning Liberal MPs must vote with their party or face discipline.

In April, he also proposed changes to the registry that he said would remove the "frustrating" elements of the registry to address "legitimate criticisms" from rural Canadians.

Several Liberal MPs who voted in favour of Hoeppner's bill have indicated they will switch their vote when it is put to a third votein the upcoming session. A vote on amotionpassed by the House public safety committee to scrap Hoeppner's bill is scheduled for Sept. 22.

Comartin 'hopeful' MPs will defeat bill

On Monday, Laytonsaid his party would immediately introduce legislationwhen the fall parliamentary session resumesto make a first-time failure to register a firearm a non-criminal ticketing offence and to waive fees for new licences.

Layton alsoaccused the Conservatives of using the registry as a wedge issue to divide Canadians and hit out at Ignatieff for only proposing changes to theregistry once his party forms a government.

But Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland said there's no way such a bill could pass before the final vote on Hoeppner's bill.

"You can't improve something that's gone," Holland told CBC News.

Speaking on Tuesday in a panel interviewon Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, NDP Justice critic Joe Comartin said he was "hopeful" that enough ofhis colleagues from rural and northern ridings would vote against Hoeppner's bill if the NDP's proposed legislation failed to pass in time.

"At this point we're very close to having enough of them say to C-391: 'This is not the way to go,' [to] say to the country, 'There's a way of reaching a compromise here that will be acceptable to the vast majority of Canadians'," Comartin said.

"So, I expect that, in fact, we, ultimately, are going to defeat C-391 unless we can reach the compromise before we reach that stage."

Mulcair said it was up to the Liberals to get on board with the NDP's plan if they are serious about the registry.

"If the Liberals want to improve the registry, which they say they want to do, then they can vote with the NDP law that we're going to be presenting," he said.

The Liberal women'scaucus announced it isplanning a cross-country tour to defend thelong-gun registry, whichwas brought in by the government of Jean Chrtien in 1995 in responseto the killing of 14 women at Montreal's L'cole Polytchnique in 1989.

WithIgnatieff's challenge, the Liberals appear to be directly targeting Mulcair, whowrestedthe prizedMontreal riding of Outremont from themin a byelection in 2007.

Surviving victims andrelatives of those killedin theL'cole Polytchnique massacre, as well as more recent fatalshootings at Dawson College and Concordia University, havepublicly calledonMulcair andhis caucus colleagues tosave the registryby opposing Hoeppner's bill.

The Conservatives have denounced the long-gun registryas wasteful and ineffective, arguing it criminalizes law-abiding Canadians who fail to register a firearm.

Party willfight for 'hard-pressed' middle class

Ignatieff's speech differed from his aggressive addressat last summer's caucus retreat, in whichhedeclaredHarper's "time is up" only to back down from defeating the Conservative government in subsequent sessions.

During his address Tuesday, the Liberal leader said "truth and transparency" will be the hallmark of his party's platform.

Ignatieff again painted the Liberals as Canada's "big red tent" in the political centre,insistinghis party would fight for "hard-pressed, middle-class Canadians" and "champion" issues like early-learning education, universalhealthcare andpension security.

He said the prime minister has been going around the countrysaying "everything is terrific," then worked in a barb against the government's plan to scrap the mandatory long-form census.

"You begin to ask yourself, how does he know?" Ignatieff said. "He doesn't care about statistics, that's for sure."

Ignatieff also urged his caucus to sustain the momentum from the summer bus tour into the fall session, but also issued a warning about their Conservative opponents.

"We're up against the toughest and most ruthless machine in Canadian politics," he said. "Never forget that for a second."