With some of his trademarked clownish theatricality, Charlie Angus described his exasperation with We The Media for apparently getting the headlines wrong about the NDP’s promises around restoring the long-gun registry. Describing his reaction as having “banged his head on the table,” Angus tried to insist that no, they weren’t going to bring back the registry. Really! But they still plan to put in a system to track every gun, which is pretty much a registry, even if they don’t want to call it such. (The cognitive dissonance! It burns!). And while Angus and others try to double down on their senseless attempt at holding contradictory thoughts in their heads, it’s starting to look a lot like a facile attempt to please everyone – to play to their Quebec base (for whom the registry is a very big deal and tied to the École Polytechnique massacre), to keep their urban voters happy with their penchant for gun control, while trying to ensure that what few rural and northern voters that they have, who objected to the registry, aren’t similarly put out (and to ensure that they don’t have any other MPs rebel like Bruce Hyer did before they ousted him for standing up for his constituents wishes and thus going against party orthodoxy). It can’t really be done, certainly not how they’re describing, and yet here we are, pretending that their registry proposal isn’t really a registry, as though we’re idiots. It’s a nice try, but no.

Good reads:

• The Liberals have retained famed human rights lawyer Cynthia Peterson to investigate those harassment allegations.
• A Senate Conservative bill to commemorate the exodus from Vietnam is causing diplomatic tensions with that country. Even more curious is why it was being rushed through.
• Her office budget out of money, the Information Commissioner can’t launch any more court challenges to blocked Access to Information requests, and she’s talking about dusting off her robes and litigating for herself. Rosemary Barton interviews her here.
• Here is a glimpse of Public Safety Canada’s emails on October 22^nd after the shooting.
• Twenty-five years after the École Polytechnique massacre, here are reflections from Shelley Page and Christina Spencer.
• Susan Delacourt writes about five being the new magic number in politics.
• The prostitution bill goes into effect today, the Conservatives touting it as a victory for the equality of women.

Odds and ends:

It looks like retired General Andrew Leslie will be acclaimed as a Liberal candidate this weekend.

The Bank of Canada wants people to weigh in on what should appear on special 150^th anniversary banknotes.

Here’s the Ottawa Citizen’s Gargoyle weekly roundup.