Last week, the House of Commons voted on C-560, a Private Member’s Bill on shared parenting authored by Maurice Vellacott, one of my fellow Conservative MPs in Saskatoon. There were good reasons to vote for the bill, which dealt with child custody after a divorce. There were also good reasons to vote against it.

All parties in the House of Commons were somewhat split on the issue.  The thing that I found interesting was how each party dealt with the bill. The Conservative vote split, 80 MPs for and 64 against the legislation.

The Liberals and NDP dealt with the issue differently.  The NDP had two of their MPs leave the chamber, to avoid splitting their vote. The Liberals had one of their MPs abstain.

I know that no party is perfect regarding how much freedom it gives MPs on matters of conscience, but that needs to change. MPs are elected to make decisions. We do that by voting–even if the issue is uncomfortable.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament in Saskatoon-Humboldt. You can reach my office in Saskatoon at 975-6133. Feel free to drop by my two offices for a visit: Saskatoon (Monday to Friday) or Humboldt (Tuesday and Wednesday). I always appreciate your feedback.