The federal government will move quickly when Parliament resumes in September to end the long gun registry, predicts one of the Conservative party’s most prominent advocates of the move.
Southern Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner, parliamentary secretary to public safety minister Vic Toews, said the end is near for the registry, although she would not guarantee that the legislation will be introduced in the autumn soon after Parliament resumes in late September, as many expect.
“Others will decide when the bill is introduced,” she said.
“But I know it is a priority of this government and this prime minister, and typically with this government when something is a priority, we act on it. I’m expecting it to be sooner rather than later.
Hoeppner sponsored a private member’s bill in the last Parliament to abolish the long gun registry, which came within two votes of passing.
It divided the NDP caucus between rural and urban and led some rural Liberals, who had campaigned to end the registry, to swallow their political pride and vote with their party against the bill.
Hoeppner travelled to opposition rural ridings across the country during the spring election campaign to raise the profile of the gun registry issue. She insists the issue was a key factor in winning the Conservatives their nine-seat majority.
“I believe very strongly that seats changed because of it,” she said. “I like to think that this issue and the way it was handled by opposition really did help us win our majority.”
The Liberals have identified at least three seats they lost to the Conservatives on the gun registry issue. Conservatives argue there were more and that perhaps the issue was a factor in the NDP loss of a northern Ontario seat.
Hoeppner said whatever the timing, the end is near for an issue that has been bedrock policy for the Reform, Canadian Alliance and Conservative parties since the first Reformer came to Parliament more than two decades ago.
“What I’m happy about is that it is very close,” she said.
“In the big scheme of things, it is very close. From my perspective, this bill can’t come fast enough.”
Meanwhile, one of the original Reform MPs from the 1993 election and the main campaigner against the registry in the past 18 years is warning provinces against setting up their own long gun registries once the federal registry is abolished.
Several provinces, led by Quebec, have mused about setting up their own registries.
Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz said it would be a bad move to repeat the mistakes of the former federal Liberal government. He insists the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the registry since it was set up have been wasted, penalizing legal gun owners, hunters and farmers while not making Canadians safer.
“The former government missed the boat and it would be a shame if a short-sighted provincial government follows suit to garner votes,” he said in a statement.
“It’s wrong to play on the emotions of voters who are not aware of the facts.”
