CTF supporters wrote the leaders of opposition parties urging them to allow free votes and to support a bill that would take long guns out of the gun registry. But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff may not allow such free votes in the future, as the Globe and Mail reports.

In caucus today, the Liberal Leader told his MPs that he is “taking under advisement” the recommendation by the Liberal Whip Rodger Cuzner to “control private member’s votes,” according to an inside source.

This issue arose as the result of a controversial vote this month when eight Liberal MPs voted for a Conservative private member’s bill to scrap the long-gun registry – this, despite pleas by the Whip and the Leader for MPs to stand together and vote against it.

After all, the long-gun registry was brought in by the Liberals at a big political cost. There was criticism from observers and even grumbling within the party that the vote should have been whipped. The Bloc whipped its members to vote against the bill.

Count this as another respect in which the Liberals should not follow the Bloc.