Back when the national gun registry was saved from demise, a turncoat's dozen of 14 MPs -- eight Liberals and six NDPers -- turned their back on their constituencies by flip-flopping on their original vote to see the registry scrapped.

We promised, back then, to remind you of who they are.

And today we're doing just that.

The turncoats in the Liberal camp, all who tossed principle into the dumpster over a self-serving fear of being kicked out of their precious seat in caucus, include Anthony Rota (Northern Ontario), Jean-Claude D'Amours (New Brunswick), Larry Bagnell (Yukon), Scott Andrews (Newfoundland), Scott Simms (Newfoundland), Todd Russell (Labrador), Wayne Easter (P.E.I.).

Keith Martin, a former Reform MP who already skewered grassroots conservatism by reincarnating to the Liberals, is wisely not seeking re-election on Vancouver Island.

But all the others are.

The majority of the six NDP turncoats, it should be noted, all come from the hunting mecca of Northern Ontario and, if they escape this election unscathed, they must have been campaigning wearing camouflage.

So let's remind the good folks of the Nickel Belt region that Carol Hughes, Charlie Angus, Claude Gravelle and Glenn Thibeault can no longer be taken at their word after siding with the fiction that law-abiding ranchers, farmers, hunters and long gun owners across this country are a dangerous faction who must be tracked and treated like criminals.

And neither can Malcolm Allen be taken at his word in the southern Ontario town of Welland.

Or Peter Stoffer of Nova Scotia, a perennial press gallery darling and therefore even more suspect.

From an outsider's perspective untainted by the Ottawa bubble, Stoffer's cry-me-a-river explanation that loss of civility and compromise during the gun debate caused him to turn his back on his voters is both sanctimonious and a little too cute for words.

In truth, he turned tail on his people, and therefore doesn't deserve re-election.

If your constituents' wishes mean nothing, then you're not worth their X on a ballot.

What these 13 MPs still standing for re-election want their electorate to do is cast a sympathetic vote for an MP who believes in putting paycheque before principle.

It's not a winning motto.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/04/27/fire-these-gun-registry-turncoats