REGINA – NDP Leader Jack Layton said Tuesday he is “confident” his NDP MPs will save the long-gun registry.

Layton told reporters at his party’s caucus retreat that most of the rural caucus will vote against the Conservative private member’s bill that would scrap the registry.

Of twelve NDP MPs who had previously voted for Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s bill, four have announced they will oppose the legislation in a Sept. 22 vote.

Layton, who has refused to impose a position on the registry on his MPs, made clear his belief they now have enough votes in the rural caucus to save the registry.

Earlier Tuesday in Ottawa, Liberal House leader David McGuinty accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of using the looming vote on the gun registry as a political tactic to reap a handful of new Conservative seats in the next election.

“Mr. Harper isn’t really having a debate right now about public safety and community safety,” McGuinty told reporters, as Liberals condemned the apparent involvement of the U.S. National Rifle Association in lobbying efforts to kill the Canadian long-gun registry.

The CBC reported Monday that Canadian gun-registry opponents have been receiving “tremendous amounts” of logistical support from the NRA, dating back a decade.

“Mr. Harper is having a wedge-politics debate to try to pick off eight to 10 ridings. Let’s call it for what it is,” McGuinty said.

The Conservatives say the Liberals are caught up in a “conspiracy theory.”

Tory MP Pierre Poilievre, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, said there is “no connection whatsoever” between his party and the U.S. pro-gun lobby.

“The latest Liberal conspiracy theory is nothing more than an insult to rural Canadians and it is also false.”

The House of Commons votes next week on the Conservative private members’ bill to abolish the long-gun registry, and in advance of the vote, lobbying and public-relations pressure has been building on all sides.

New Democrats who voted to kill the registry in the past are particular targets of the pressure and this week, the Conservatives launched a wave of advertising to keep the NDP MPs lined up to vote for abolition.

McGuinty said the ads reveal the Conservatives’ real motives.

“It’s the worst of right-wing, Republican wedge politics. You pick an issue, you sensationalize an issue... and you keep everyone else distracted with debates that are divisive,” he said.

McGuinty on Tuesday produced more examples of NRA connections to the Canadian gun-registry debate. He said the link has long concerned Liberals, who intend to vote in favour of saving the gun registry next week.

Poilievre said that while the Conservatives do work with firearms groups, they are domestic organizations.

“The Conservative party is working with uniquely Canadian organizations in order to scrap the wasteful, billion-dollar, long-gun registry,” he said.

McGuinty and the Liberals appear to have switched to friendly persuasion and flattery in a bid to get all the NDP on side.

“Mr. Layton has done a lot of good work in many areas in Canada. He’s a very progressive individual; on the environment, on energy fronts,” said McGuinty.

“I know that in Mr. Layton’s heart of hearts, he knows his caucus should be supporting this gun registry. He has to go back, I think now, and work a little bit harder and bring his principles to bear on a (fundamental) question for Canada’s community safety.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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The fate of the registry

Twelve of the NDP’s 36-member caucus previously voted in favour of the Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill to kill the long-gun registry.

The following four have announced they plan to change course and vote against her bill next week:

MPs Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay);

Malcolm Allen (Welland);

Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury);

Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt).

Two appear determined to vote for Hoeppner’s bill: MPs Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastgern Shore) and John Rafferty (Thunder Bay-Rainy River).

The remaining six are said to be keeping open minds about the Sept. 22 vote:

Niki Ashton (Churchill);

Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic);

Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley);

Carol Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing);

Bruce Hyer (Thunder Bay-Superior North); Jim Maloway (Elmwood-Transcona.)

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