MONTREAL – For a time, rural Liberals at the party convention last week thought they were doing well.
After appeals to delegates to come to grips with the fact the party has lost favour in rural Canada, forfeiting a fighting chance in more than 70 ridings, the convention passed several rural-friendly resolutions on agriculture, rural infrastructure and investment.
Then came an issue that has plagued Liberal candidates in rural Canada for a decade – party support for tougher gun control and registration laws.
At a convention centre just blocks from the scene of a deadly shooting at Dawson College in September, a resolution from the National Women’s Liberal Commission came to the floor Nov. 30 proposing personal use of semi-automatic and automatic weapons be banned by legislation.
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Currently semi-automatics are allowed to people who possess a restricted firearms licence and the proper registration certificate.
Automatic weapons are prohibited except to those who owned one before Dec. 1, 1998.
Rural Ontario MP Paul Steckle, who voted against the Liberal long gun registry in Parliament and once famously posed for his family Christmas card armed and dressed in army fatigues, quickly went to the microphone.
“The Liberal party has taken ownership on the gun issue,” he said. “If we want to elect Liberals in rural areas, we should not take this further.”
He noted he was one of few rural Liberals MPs elected in 2006.
After several pro-resolution speeches promoting the need to get guns off the street, Thunder Bay MP and Liberal rural caucus chair Ken Boshcoff tried his hand. He too noted the steady erosion in rural support for Liberals.
“The 74 seats we have lost in rural Canada will only become more distant with the passing of this resolution,” he said, pleading with delegates to vote it down.
It passed by a more than two-to-one margin.
In a later interview, Prince Edward Island MP Wayne Easter said the Liberal problem with rural policy is something of a vicious circle. As fewer Liberals get elected in rural ridings, the rural voice becomes weaker in the party and the urban bias strengthens.
Murray Downing, who experienced rural anger over Liberal gun policies in Brandon, said much of the work done to find winning policies for rural areas has been undermined by supporting strengthening gun laws.
“It’s like going to a restaurant,” he said. “If you have nine good meals and then one bad meal, the bad meal is the one that is remembered and talked about. This is what rural Canadians will see coming out of this convention, more gun control.”
