Government whip who tore into Motion M-312 will allow free vote

[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs on Sept 25, 2012]

A CBC reporter is tweeting that the Harper government, which had been trying to get cabinet ministers to hold steady against the pro-life motion M-312, will now formally allow every Tory MP to vote as they like, acording to this Lifesite story.

This news would explain why Jason Kenney, Immigration minister, said he would vote for M-312 yesterday.

This is odd, given that Government Whip Gordon O'Connor tore into the motion during debate a few days ago, giving reason after reason not to vote for it. Perhaps the Tory brains trust is giving the message "You can vote as you like, but we really really really want you to vote this way", which is dangerous if they want the motion to fail. Hints, even strongly worded ones, may be ignored if the Government Whip stays his hand.

My educated guess is that pro-life MPs are threatening the sort of revolt that Faytene Grasseschi documented for us in my recent post on M-312, or it has already started? Do the Tories fear such a revolt?

Maybe Faytene Grasseschi could sneak onto Parliament Hill for us to get another leak, as I am still guessing the motion will fail, and I'd like to know if another revolt is brewing. ;)