Last week I wrote about how a reporter tried in vain to portray the Conservative Party as “deeply divided” over the gay ‘marriage’ issue.
He set about “reporting” that story by interviewing two people—an ex-assistant deputy press secretary to the former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of the now defunct Progressive Conservative Party (the party that Stephen Harper, current leader of the Conservative Party, disliked so much he helped form a new party); and by interviewing an un-named aid who the reporter called a “senior advisor” to a Conservative premier of a maritime province—the aid speaking only on the supposed condition of total anonymity—who revealed nothing about anything.
That is how the crack reporter concluded that there was a “deep divide” in the Conservative Party over gay ‘marriage’. (I then had to write about how this reporter changed his entire article online without any notice or explanation after I wrote that.)
Here’s a real story of a real deep divide, and it is in the Liberal Party. This hellacious cat-fight has even gotten to the point where during a Liberal caucus chat about the issue, a shouting match (or a “dustup”, as the reporter tells it) occurred between the Liberal Prime Minister and his own elected MPs.
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Paul Martin faced down demands from the Liberal caucus Wednesday for a truly free vote on same-sex legislation and his government insisted there will not be a national referendum on the traditional union of one man and one woman.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper, NDP leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe also oppose a national referendum on the moral issue despite a National Post/Global National poll that indicated 67 per cent of those surveyed want a referendum on same-sex marriage.
The poll also suggested that 66 per cent of respondents support keeping the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman compared with 34 per cent who support same-sex marriage.
[…]
The outcome is far from certain as Liberal whip Karen Redman conceded Wednesday she only has a “soft count” of Liberals she expects to vote for the bill. Last week, she was insisting the Liberals would win by a comfortable margin.
A dustup erupted in caucus Wednesday when Toronto Liberal MP Tom Wappel accused Martin of misleading Liberals in his approach to free votes on moral issues.
“It was very tense,” said one MP.
“It was quite personal against the prime minister,” said another.
Sources say Wappel, a staunch opponent of gay marriage, reminded Martin that he campaigned during the leadership contest on giving all MPs free votes on moral issues. He also reminded him that he said the same thing during his many speeches on reforming the democratic deficit and questioned why he is now reneging on that commitment.
Jacques Saada, economic development minister for Quebec, defended Martin, insisting the prime minister made no such promise on same-sex marriage, and ultimately, caucus chairman Andy Savoy had to tell the two men to “take it (their fight) outside.”
Wappel declined to discuss what happened in caucus, saying only that he is “not hopeful” that he convinced the prime minister to allow a truly free vote.
Martin later reiterated to caucus that only backbenchers will be given the right to vote their conscience and that cabinet will have to support same-sex marriage because it is government policy.
The Liberal Party and Paul Martin should take President Bush’s advice about peace through freedom and democracy.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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