Harper Gov't Needs to Rethink Gun Registry Stance

(Aired on September 23, 2010)

If you ask any RCMP officer what's his or her most dangerous assignment, many will tell you it's domestic disputes. Emotions run particularly high, and you never know what will happen in those circumstances. They will also tell you that the more information they have going in, the better they feel about being able to resolve a situation. Prior offenses, restraining orders, history of violence, all are important.

You know what else is important? Whether or not the people have any firearms registered in their names. That's why I can't understand the Conservative government's desire to end the long-gun registry. The government MPs continue to suggest that the registry is stupid because criminals don't register their guns, that the registry only hampers legitimate hunters and gun owners.

In part, that's true. But the reality is that a high percentage of gun offenses, excluding organized crime hits, involve registered guns. Guns that are used in anger in a confrontation often spurred by domestic tension. The more information police have, the better they can serve. You can't foretell everything even if you have all the details, but it would certainly help in the way you deal with issues.

I don't think the long gun registry is perfect. It costs a lot more money than I think it should. And that's one of the arguments against it. But surely there must be ways of dealing with that problem and keeping the registry alive. I understand the concerns over the registry from rural Canada, but I don't believe their frustration should be considered above safety. If the registry has value for the police, that in itself should top any backwoods hunter from feeling frustrated that he has to register his gun. It just makes good common sense.

The Stephen Harper government needs to reevaluate its policies on this issue, and instead of concentrating on defeating the registry, concentrate on things like the economy, and justice and education, issues that have far higher priority than the gun registry.

Coalition? Please no.

(Aired on June 9, 2010)

Every time I hear about a the possibility of a coalition government, I cringe a little bit.  Thankfully, Michael Ignatieff today shot down suggestions of a coalition between his Liberals and the federal NDP to take down the Harper Conservatives.  I'm not thrilled with the job the Conservative government is doing in Ottawa right now - not thrilled, but not absolutely irate to the core of my being either.  It's only once I get that upset that I would even consider a coalition a decent option to throw the Conservatives to the other side of the Commons floor. 

When Canadians went to the polls, those who voted for the Liberals did not vote for the NDP, and vice versa.  They didn't even vote for an option that says "not the Conservatives," even though I suspect that option would be quite popular.  Instead, they voted their individual preference, and we are left with the Conservatives leading parliament in a minority government situation.

If there was widespread outrage at the Conservatives, there may be a more realistic mandate to form a coalition.  But opinion polls continue to show Harper's party with a healthy lead over any other party in public support.  Once again, "not the Conservatives" is not an option.

Finally, the NDP and the Liberals are often on far extremes of the political spectrum - usually even farther apart than the Liberals and the governing Tories.  They say politics make strange bedfellows, but a coalition between the NDP and the Liberals would be like sleeping with the enemy.