There is no government intention to change the contentious gun registration plan, Edmonton lawyer and new federal justice minister Anne McLellan said last week, moments after inheriting responsibility for the gun control file.
She told reporters she sees no reason to back away from the law which critics say cost Liberals seats in the rural West. “At this point, I see it as an implementation file.”
Just as quickly, Reform leader Preston Manning suggested the new minister will find the scheme unworkable. He signaled that Reform will continue to pressure the government on the issue.
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As an Alberta MP, the minister responsible now will live in the area where the gun law is most controversial.
He said McLellan’s support for the gun control bill is irrelevant. A number of the provinces have said they will not take part in the administration of the new system of registry.
“The government will find it has to rethink this because it will become clear that without provincial co-operation, this thing is not going to work,” Manning told a news conference hours after the cabinet was unveiled June 11. “And if it is not working, do they scrap it or change it?”
During her first days in the new ministry, McLellan showed no inclination to do either.
She told reporters that she wants to study the file, but does not consider the Liberal election setback in rural Western Canada a message that the gun control rules should be amended.
“It wasn’t raised in my campaign at all and Edmonton overwhelmingly supports gun control,” she said.
Asked if she thought that applied across the West, since several defeated Liberals have identified gun registration plans as a tough issue for their campaigns, she replied: “I think if you talked to my colleagues, most of them, not all but most, would say gun control was not an issue in their campaigns.”
For McLellan, one of two Liberals elected in Reform-dominated Alberta, inheriting the justice portfolio was viewed as a mixed blessing.
But by taking responsibility for gun control, the justice system, the victims’ rights file and the federal government’s legal challenge to Quebec’s right to leave Canada unilaterally, she becomes a favorite target both for Reform MPs and the Bloc QuŽbecois.
McLellan, 46, said she enjoys the challenge, despite reports that she at first resisted prime minister Jean ChrŽtien’s offer of the position.
