Norman Spector raises the question about who are really the ones with no "darn principals." He nails it in the last part of his column.
Frankly, in light of the history of these two political parties, it’s ludicrous for any Liberal to claim advantage over the NDP when it comes to questions of principle. Whether you agree with those principles or not.So who are the ones with principal?
I’ve never written about the long-gun registry, and have no pony in the race over whether it survives or is abolished. However, it doesn’t surprise me that members of Jack Layton’s caucus — confronted by Conservatives playing wedge politics and rubbing their hands in glee at the reaction — would be thinking toward the next election and be trying to live up to commitments they made to the folks who sent them to Ottawa in the last one.Any more than it surprises me that Liberal MPs will say or do most anything — even on fundamental issues such as Afghanistan or the Quebecois nation where the party has some history to defend — to re-gain their “rightful” role as Canada’s natural governing party. Whatever commitments they may have made in the past to voters.
On this one, I think Jack Layton even though he's trying to skirt around this by proposing a phony so called comprise bill, he and his Dippers are the ones with principal if Jack keeps his word and allows a free vote, not the Waffle and the Libs. Remember, it is the Waffle who is whipping his members to vote against even though over a half dozen voted for Bill C-391earlier. As Norm Spector says, Liberals will do or say anything to regain power.