The Conservatives see it as an opportunity to target 14 rural ridings in the next election that they did not win in 2008.
The Liberals and New Democrats say it is an opportunity to reform the long gun registry while keeping it intact.
The politics of the registry continue to play out on Parliament Hill a week after opposition MPs voted to defeat a Conservative attempt to dismantle the registry in a narrow 153-151 vote.
The attempt to dismantle the registry failed after eight Liberals who had voted to end the registry last year were ordered by leader Michael Ignatieff to change their vote, and six of 12 New Democrats who supported abolition decided to switch sides even though leader Jack Layton gave them a free vote but urged them to switch.
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Six New Democrats including Niki AshtonofChurchill, Man., andJimMaloway of Winnipeg voted for abolition.
“After 15 years, opposition to the long gun registry is stronger in this country than it has ever been,” prime minister Stephen Harper told reporters after the Sept. 22 vote.
“With the vote tonight, its abolition is closer than it has ever been. The people of the regions of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals and we will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished.”
Government House leader John Baird said the MPs who switched their votes were taking orders from Toronto elites.
And Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, whose private member’s bill to abolish the registry was at the centre of the vote, called on voters to punish those MPs at the next election.
“Rest assured, Canadians will not forget this betrayal,” she said after the vote.
“Those MPs have sent a clear message that their voters have heard and understood – that they don’t have a voice in Ottawa when they thought they did.”
Conservatives have already targeted the rural ridings of MPs who switched their votes, including Wayne Easter in Prince Edward Island. In 2008, his victory margin was reduced from more than 3,000 votes to fewer than 1,000.
Many of the New Democrats who changed their position said they were motivated in part by the overly partisan approach the Conservatives took to the issue.
Meanwhile, Liberals and New Democrats said they will use the opposition’s parliamentary majority to reform the registry to make it less objectionable to rural gun owners. Both parties said they want to eliminate fees and make a first offense subject to ticketing rather than a criminal charge.
And while Conservatives insist that front-line police officers do not find the registry useful, the Canadian Police Association issued a statement praising the decision to retain the registry and vowed to work with MPs to make the registry program better through greater accountability, efficiency and effectiveness.
CPA president Charles Momy said in a statement that the registry, despite its critics, is effective.
“The simple fact is that registration provides valuable ownership information to police officers in the enforcement of firearm prohibition orders and in support of police investigations.”
