Prime minister Stephen Harper hinted on Feb. 6 that Conservative action on the gun registry could come as soon as the first session of the new Parliament this spring.
After the first cabinet minister of his new government was sworn in, Harper responded to a question on the gun registry by noting that justice minister Vic Toews will bring a package of justice reform measures to Parliament soon.
He said the gun issue was discussed during the first cabinet meeting and while no final decision was made on whether or how the registry would be included, it could be.
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“We will have to have more cabinet discussion on that.”
During the election campaign, the Conservatives promised to abolish the registry and apply its budget to police hiring.
On Feb. 6, Harper unveiled a cabinet that underplayed his prairie electoral strength and reached out to regions where he hopes to pick up strength in the next election.
The 27-member cabinet includes six from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, nine from Ontario, five from Quebec and four from British Columbia.
Harper called it a balanced cabinet that includes six women. Almost half the ministers made a point of speaking French during their first-day ceremonies to reach out to Quebec, which sent 10 Conservatives to Ottawa Jan. 23.
For farmers, the surprise announcement was that former British Columbia construction industry executive Chuck Strahl is the new agriculture and Canadian Wheat Board minister.
But many other new ministers also deal with issues important to rural Canada.
Western Quebec MP Lawrence Cannon is the new transport minister who inherits the issue of whether to honour an agreement-in-principle with the Farmer Rail Car Coalition for the disposal of the government hopper car fleet.
Saskatchewan MP Carol Skelton, Saskatchewan’s lone cabinet representative, is responsible for Western Economic Diversification and the national revenue portfolio.
Vancouver MP David Emerson, who jumped from the outgoing Liberal cabinet to the incoming Conservative cabinet on the same day, inherits the trade file and World Trade Organization talks.
Former Ontario health minister Tony Clement, who defeated former agriculture minister Andy Mitchell by just 28 votes in a recount that was decided Feb. 3, becomes health minister and inherits the contentious Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
Former Conservative agriculture critic Diane Finley takes the huge human Resources and Social Development portfolio, which includes implementing new day-care policies and scrapping federal-provincial funding agreements worked out with all the provinces last year by the Liberals.
Toews, a southern Manitoba MP, lone Manitoba representative and former provincial justice minister with a strong conservative justice reputation and a record of ridiculing the effectiveness of the gun registry, will be the face of the new government’s law-and-order initiatives.
This week, Harper unveils a list of parliamentary secretaries and a number of MPs prominent in opposition will be given parliamentary secretary responsibilities.
Rookie Quebec MP and farmer Jacques Gourde is expected to become Strahl’s parliamentary secretary.
