The marriage hustle

The Hill Times (a tabloid written for political mainliners, civil servants and other Parliamentary denizens) reports that Canada's ruling Liberals have appointed the members of the special committee that will study Bill C-38, the same-sex marriage legislation. It's an interesting move, since the bill would normally go to an already existing standing committee for discussion. There's one more member than usual -- lucky 13 instead of a dozen. They'll take over once (if) C-38 passes second reading, weeks from now.

Committee members are Liberals Don Boudria, Françoise Boivin, Paul Macklin, Anita Neville, and Michael Savage. The Conservatives are Rona Ambrose, Gord Brown, Rob Moore, and Vic Toews. The Bloc has Richard Marceau and Real Menard, who is out. The New Democrats also placed their openly gay MP, British Columbia's Bill Sisksay. The chair is deputy Speaker Marcel Proulx (elected as a Liberal).

I'll post their positions on marriage later today.

ADDENDUM The Liberals, of course, stacked the committee with five supporters. The Bloc added two more (including, as previously noted, the party's lone out gay MP, Real Menard). The New Democrats stuck their gay boy on there, Bill Siksay. That makes eight pros.

On the antis, we have four Conservatives, including Vic Toews, a particularly crabby guy with a long record of anti-gay votes. (Don't confuse gay marriage no-voter Rob Moore with his colleague James Moore, one of the handful of courageous Conservatives who will support queer matrimony.) Canadians for Equal Marriage has Rona Ambrose listed as "unclear on equal marriage," but she's gotta be against, or the Tories wouldn't have put her there.

According to Canadians for Equal Marriage, chair Proulx is still a fence sitter. His vote won't be needed, given the way things look now.

BTW, Canadians for Equal Marriage has a useful section which lists how each MP is expected vote on same-sex marriage. It's listed by riding rather than by name; there's also a page where you can type in a postal code or an MP's name.

The Hill Times' story's here, around the middle of the page.