"We look like fools," one Liberal MP said after the vote. Another Liberal told a reporter it was "clown city" on their side of the House, a phrase the Conservatives gleefully repeated in the House Wednesday.
"We told the Liberal leader that his motion was divisive, and we were right. He divided his caucus," Windsor area Conservative MP Jeff Watson said.
Liberals licking wounds after voting gaffe
MPs break ranks on plan to revive abortion issue
By Andrew Mayeda And David Akin
Canwest News Service
March 25, 2010
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff receives a standing ovation from his caucus while speaking during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa March 24, 2010.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff conceded Wednesday that his party has some "internal issues" to resolve after several of his own MPs broke ranks in a vote designed to attack the Conservatives as social conservatives out of touch with mainstream Canadians.
"I would have preferred a different result last night, and we have some internal caucus issues to work out," Ignatieff told reporters Wednesday.
The Liberal plan was to put forward a motion in the House of Commons that could, under some circumstances, be interpreted as endorsing abortion as part of the "full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options" to be included in the government's G-8 maternal health initiative.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is hosting the annual G-8 leaders summit in Huntsville, Ont., this summer, has said he intends to make improving maternal and child health a key priority for the group.
The Liberals bet, correctly, that the Conservatives would vote against their motion. But though the NDP and Bloc Quebecois voted with them, their strategy blew up in their faces when three of their own MPs voted against their own motion and 14 others failed to show up. The Liberals lost by six votes.
Liberals on Wednesday grumbled to reporters that the party strategy was flawed from the outset and then compounded by terrible execution when it came time to vote on the issue Tuesday evening.
To make matters worse, and to the delight of the Conservatives, several Liberal MPs followed up that defeat by mistakenly voting for the government's spending plan, part of the 2009 budget.
"We look like fools," one Liberal MP said after the vote. Another Liberal told a reporter it was "clown city" on their side of the House, a phrase the Conservatives gleefully repeated in the House Wednesday.
"We told the Liberal leader that his motion was divisive, and we were right. He divided his caucus," Windsor area Conservative MP Jeff Watson said.
"While some stood against him, even more chose to sit out the Liberal leader's motion. One Liberal MP even told the media it was clown city."
The Liberals' whip, Cape Breton MP Rodger Cuzner, who is responsible for ensuring that all Liberal MPs are in the House of Commons ready to toe the party line on important votes, was avoiding reporters Wednesday.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Liberals+licking+wounds+after+voting+gaffe/2724340/story.html
Easy Nash
If my Blog was a four year undergraduate degree I guess my major would be Science and Religion and my minor would be Politics: Easy Nash(2010).
