Fight over Canandian Gun Control Law

[Zarquon]

As Canadians commemorated the 20th anniversary of one of the country’s most notorious shooting sprees (http://archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/topics/398/) on Sunday, their Parliament was on course to eliminate one of its most significant gun-control measures.
Parliament’s response to the crime was passage of the long-gun registry, and few issues since have so divided rural and urban Canadians. The law’s looming demise has revived the national debate over gun control and, with the wounds of 1989 still tender, raised deep questions about Canadian identity.
“Canada is suddenly changing into a place that loves guns and armies and war,” said Gerald L. Caplan, a prominent academic and former campaign director of the liberal New Democratic Party. “I don’t know how we got there but I don’t like it.”
The law has been controversial since its approval in 1995, and there are competing theories as to why it suddenly appears doomed now. While Mr. Caplan cites a political shift signaled by the election of a Conservative government in 2006, many analysts credit an obscure Parliamentary maneuver by gun-control opponents that allowed them to assemble a voting majority.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the debate has pitted the Conservative government, which generally promotes a law and order agenda and wants to get rid of the law, against the police, who resoundingly favor keeping it.Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/world/americas/07canada.html)
Well, what more do you expect from idiot conservatives?

[Michael]

The Conservative Party has a habit of wanting to re-fight old elections (because their die-hard fan base obsesses about 'losses' from ten, twenty and thirty years ago and never forgets them).

The gun control registry was an issue about 15 years ago when it was setup. And there were lots of controversies about it at the time because it was rolled out with the usual amount of idiot bureaucracy to screw it up, thus generating headlines that it was some money wasting boondoogle. All that is in the past. The program was reformed/refined and has been working very well for the last dozen years. It is particularly popular with law enforcement officials.

Attempting to kill the program now that it is fully functional is typical Conservative bullshit. They are pandering to their base because the Conservatives are in trouble on just about every other issue.

And PM Harper, with his nose for partisan warfare, correctly pegged the idiot Ignatieff and managed to get Ignatieff to support him on this issue, despite the fact that the Liberal Party has a long history of supporting gun control.

Ignatieff apparently doesn't have any political prinicples at all - he just bends to whatever wind he thinks will help him win (but since he's got zero experience as politician, he keeps choosing issues badly). Fact is, Igantieff supporting the killing of the gun registry is not going to gain the Liberal Party one single vote out west so he's an idiot to set himself up in opposition to the vast majority in Quebec and Southern Ontario (since these voters are the natural Liberal Party base - Ignatieff already has problems with this group).

So, this issue is a short-term partisan boon to Harper (since it undermines Ignatieff) and that's the only thing Harper understands or thinks about, so its full steam ahead.

Opinion polls show (narrow) majority support to defend the gun registry and solid institutional support from the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs and Police Associations across the country.

Just another nail in Ignatieff's coffin (which is a good thing - I can't stand the guy and want him gone as fast as possible).