But those who don’t will be disciplined by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff: they will be forced to read one of his books.

The Liberal plan to include abortion in the Conservative government’s G8 maternal health initiative failed by 144-138; surprisingly, some Liberals still have a conscience and either voted against the bill or stayed away.

From the National Post:

And so the Liberals ended up with some tremendous egg on their face. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff seemed to concede as much after emerging from the weekly closed-door meeting with his caucus. ““I would have preferred a different result,” he wryly observed.

Privately, Liberal MPs said that the 90-minute caucus meeting was not a happy place with MPs directing their frustration at Ignatieff, his staff, and party whip Rodger Cuzner. It would have been Cuzner’s job to make sure all of his MPs knew it was a whipped vote and to make sure they were all in their seats and ready to vote “Aye”. Ignatieff would not say what punishment would be in store for the Liberal MPs who did not vote the way they were supposed to, saying only that Cuzner would decide on that.

“We look like fools,” one Liberal MP said privately.

Liberal MPs don’t mind looking like baby killers, but they hate looking like fools.