Tag Archives: Long Gun Registry

News

Harper’s Conservatives lead Liberals 42.3 to 28.4 in latest election poll

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From the Vancouver Province.

Excerpt:

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have soared into majority government territory in B.C. with more than double the support of the Liberals, a new poll says.

As the federal election campaign enters week two, The Nanos poll, conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV, indicates 49.7 per cent support for the Conservatives here and 23.4 per cent for the Liberals, with the NDP garnering 20.6 per cent support.

The daily tracking poll has Stephen Harper’s Conservatives winning over 40-per cent support across Canada — seen as the key level of support for forming a majority government — with a commanding 14-point lead over Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals.

Harper’s party is only trailing in Quebec to the Bloc, with Canada-wide support of 42.3 per cent, compared to 28.4 per cent for the Liberals, 16.4 per cent for Jack Layton’s NDP and 3.8 per cent for the Greens.

And from the London Free Press – policies!

Excerpt:

“We stand with farmers and hunters and we will scrap the long-gun registry,” said Harper, adding that a Tory majority would prevent the opposition from blocking those efforts again.

He also tried to counter the image of rural residents as out of step with the rest of the country.

“I have not found in rural Canada a general opposition to gun control,” said Harper. “There’s not a general opposition to the idea that a gun owner should get a licence. We’ve had a handgun registry for years.”

He sees wide acceptance of those measures as well as restrictions on powerful weapons.

“What people don’t accept is going out and registering millions and millions and millions of long guns when we already have all this other information.”

My previous post on Harper’s plan to ban political contributions from unions and big corporations, as well as federal subsidies for political parties.

My previous post on Harper’s initiative to win over social conservatives as much as he can given the circumstances.

News

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper vows to end long-gun registry

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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Here’s the story from the National Post.

Excerpt:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed yesterday the Conservative party “will not rest” until the day it abolishes the long-gun registry.

[…]Mr. Harper predicted the “registry will someday be abolished” because it will continually be opposed by the people who understand it–whom he identified as “rural Canadians, hunters, outdoors men and women (and) police officers.”These people will never accept this registry because they know it is ineffective and wasteful. And the party I lead will not rest until the day it is abolished.”

See, the interesting thing is that this is exactly the kind of issue that Harper can use to drive rural voters, some of who vote Liberal or Socialist (NDP), towards the federal Conservative Party in the next federal election. Canadian rural voters tend to be further to the left than American rural voters.

Look at how the left-wing parties are squirming:

The Harper government has gone on the offensive this week in trying to draw attention to Liberal and NDP MPs who were once opponents of the long-gun registry but are now poised to vote in favour of it. Government House leader John Baird has said those MPs have been pressured by “Toronto elites” to switch their votes and will be held accountable by voters in the next election.

In Thunder Bay, NDP MPs John Rafferty and Bruce Hyer, on record as registry opponents, have yet to declare their intentions for next Wednesday’s vote on Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s bill to kill the registry.

The bill handily passed a preliminary vote last November, with the help of 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals. The margin this time is expected to be razor thin. The Liberals have been ordered to vote along party lines, while the New Democrats have said they have the six vote-changers they believe they need to save the registry.

And fiscal conservatives also hate the long-gun registry. It was supposed to cost 2 million dollars to implement, but it actually has cost over 2 billion dollars. What a waste! And with no demonstrable effect on crime rates, since law-abiding hunters don’t commit crimes.