BRANDON – On a warm, sun-drenched evening late last week, Conservative candidate Merv Tweed stood at the Brandon Gun Club talking to the converted.
A dozen gun owners stood around and as shooters blazed away in the background, Tweed assured them the days of the long gun registry are numbered if the Conservative Party wins government June 28.
“One of the first orders of business we will proceed with is scrapping the gun registry,” said the veteran of provincial politics who is running federally for the first time in the Brandon-Souris riding, trying to keep it Conservative after incumbent MP Rick Borotsik retired. “It is bad policy. The only thing we can do to improve the situation is to get rid of it.”
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He said the annual savings of $25-$100 million would be spent on crime prevention or law enforcement.
The crowd applauded. They also had some questions.
Would the Conservatives keep the handgun registry? Yes. What would happen to the names now held in the gun registry database? Tweed did not know but he said it would have to be destroyed and privacy rights protected.
It was another night in a relentless Conservative campaign drive to cash in on rural frustration over the registry.
Last week, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said the party would kill it. At a farm in agriculture minister Bob Speller’s southern Ontario riding June 4, he said the Liberal decision to impose the registry shows they do not understand rural Canada.
In southern rural Manitoba last week, Conservative candidates played the card consistently.
“The gun registry is a clear illustration of the different philosophies of the two political parties,” Brian Pallister told a lunch hour meeting in his Portage-Lisgar riding June 2. “If we are elected, it will be gone.”
The two dozen who showed up, many of them farmers, nodded their approval.
“It’s a huge issue here,” said Provencher Conservative Vic Toews. “I hear about it all the time and it is a vote-determining issue. Don’t forget (former Liberal MP) David Iftody voted against it and it still defeated him in 2000.”
All this leaves the Liberal candidates scrambling.
Federal ministers tried to deal with the criticism by announcing election-eve reforms, including an end to registration charges and a commitment to limit annual costs to $25 million after this year.
The announcement had little apparent impact on the opponents and many rural Liberal candidates try to fend off criticism by saying they too oppose it and will work for further changes.
“Quite frankly, I’m somewhat disappointed in the announcement but I tell voters it is a first step and I will push from inside to take bolder steps,” said Provencher Liberal candidate Peter Epp.
Next door in Portage-Lisgar, former pulse grower leader and now Liberal candidate Don Kuhl said it is one of the top issues and he promises to try to change the Ottawa mindset.
In Brandon, Liberal and farmer Murray Downing said it is an issue he has to confront.
“The Liberal stance is that the gun registry is here to stay and quite frankly, my personal view on it is irrelevant,” he said. “What I tell people is that if they want me to carry a message to Ottawa about the registry, tell me the message and I’ll carry it.”
