How Free is Free?

Liberal MP Pat O'Brien is Liberal no more, thanks to the looming specter of gay marriage. Now, O'Brien hasn't crossed the floor. The implication: he doesn't agree with CPC economic policy; nor, one might assume, with CPC social policy. No, he's just so damn disgusted with gay marriage, with his party's stand on gay marriage, and with the fact that gay marriage isn't getting "a full and fair debate" (which I don't really understand, since we as a nation have been debating it for years now, and the politicos have been debating it since the election and times beyond), that he has chosen to betray his party....

The vote on gay marriage is a free vote. Mr. O'Brien was and is not obligated to vote in favour of the bill. So why would Mr. O'Brien take such a massive step, merely as a means of voicing his opposition to a bill which he has already had plenty of opportunities to disapprove of, and will have a similar opportunity in the near future?

[via Paranoid Left-Wing Ranting, emphasis mine]