fossilization

Win:

In a surprising softening of Liberal policy, party leader Michael Ignatieff says penalties for violating requirements of the long-gun registry could be “decriminalized” as part of an effort to broaden its legitimacy in the eyes of rural Canadians.

Ignatieff’s statement set the stage for a vote hours later in the House of Commons in which a majority of MPs voted, for the first time in 14 years, to give “approval in principle” to a bill to kill the long-gun registry.

In a 164-137 vote, MPs – including 12 New Democrats, eight Liberals, and one independent – agreed to give second reading to a private member’s bill sponsored by Conservative Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar).

That means the bill goes to committee for more study and explosive debate more than a decade after the gun registry’s creation, before coming back for a final decision by the Commons and the Senate.

I confess to being relatively ignorant of Canada’s political parties, but I sense that having “New Democrats” and “Liberals” side with the “Conservatives” on this particular vote was something of a coup. And from what I understand, this is only a minor win, in that this is the first step of many before this repeal of the long-gun registry becomes reality (I shudder at the thought of a more-complicated goverment than ours… but, at least theirs is trying to repeal idiotic laws, so maybe there is something going for it).
But small win or not, it is a win in a country notorious for its anti-firearm laws, and that alone is something to celebrate – maybe, one day, we can start legislatively working on chipping away at the countless idiotic firearm-related laws we have here.
On the flip side, is it sad to think that we have less of a chance at success than our Canadian counterparts do?