Liberal MP Pat O'Brien is one the highest profile Liberals who will cast his vote against Bill C-38. A quick look at his bio will reveal why.
...He is a long-time member of the North London Optimists and the Knights of Columbus. He also served as Chair of the St. Andrew the Apostle Parish Council and as President of St. Anne’s School C.P.T.A.
It seems that MP O'Brien is about as Irish Catholic as they come. Which brings me to this on his bio.
...He is a founding member of the Canada-Ireland Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group and currently serves as its chair. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade from 2000-2003.
Why is this relevant you ask? MP O'Brien is feeling the crack of the Party Whip and he will loose his trip to Ireland as a result. He was interviewed CBC Newsworlds Politics last night where he revealed that he will no longer be representing Canada in an upcoming Summit on the peace process in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, another member of the Canada-Ireland group, Liberal John Maloney, has been told he won't be
going either. Would it have anything to do with the fact that MP Maloney will vote against Bill C-38 as well?
Instead a rookie MP will be sent in their place. In fact, the Liberal Party's original rookie declined and instead of asking MP O'Brien or MP Maloney they found another rookie. According to MP O'Brien the Irish are not very happy about this as they are feeling slighted to have a Member of Parliament sent to the conference who is not fully aware of this file and not as skilled a diplomat as someone like MP O'Brien. MP O'Brien commented that he thought the Irish Peace Process would come above internal Party bickering but Party Whip Karen Redman thinks otherwise.
So much for PM Martin's promise to brigde the "democratic deficit".
