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SAME-SEX MARRIAGE MOTION VOTED DOWN IN A MOSTLY FREE VOTE

Yesterday, as promised, a vote was held in the House of Commons on a motion introduced by the Conservatives on whether or not we should reopen the same-sex marriage issue. This was a vote that was promised during the Conservative election campaign. It was a vote that was supposed to be a free vote where all MPs, government and opposition, could vote however they felt. For the most part this was achieved yesterday as the Conservative motion was voted down by a count of 175-123 in the House of Commons.

I think that the only thing that would have made this better was if the NDP and Bloc Quebecois would have let their members vote freely as the Conservatives and Liberals did. Harper has said that he accepts the decision and will not revisit the issue in the future because all he wanted was a free vote in Parliament unlike the votes that occurred in 1999 and last year. Stephane Dion, who of course voted against the motion, was still opposed to the issue even being reopened in the first place but it was necessary I believe.

It was interesting to see how a few of the Members voted. Twelve members of the Conservative Party voted against the motion including Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay, Minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice, President of the Treasury Board John Baird, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities Lawrence Cannon, and Minister of International Cooperation Josee Verner. At the same time there were also thirteen Liberals who supported the Conservative motion. The NDP and Bloc, of course, were instructed to vote against the motion. Now that it is all said and done and Harper has said he will not revisit the issue in the future it will stay that way.

On a side note Liberal leader Stephane Dion has been under a lot of heat about the fact that not only is he a citizen of Canada but France as well. He received his citizenship through his mother, who was born in France. After much pressure Dion says that if it will help him win an election than he will drop his French citizenship. I can understand the people who want him to lose his citizenship because it is a question of his loyalty but what about former Prime Minister John Turner (who was PM right before Mulroney) who also had dual citizenship and wasn't even born in Canada but in the United Kingdom. I don't particularly care if he keeps his citizenship or not but I thought it is interesting.

- DCM

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