November 2, 2011
MP hails bill to end
gun registry
"Promise made, promise kept"
by
Terry Myers
It's been 10 years and more in the making, but local MP Cheryl Gallant
is hailing the Conservative government's move to put an end to the
federal long-gun registry.
The government introduced the Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act last
Tuesday.
The act would not only repeal the requirement for hunters and other to
register non-restricted firearms, it would also provide for the
destruction of all the records on long-gun registration kept by the
Canadian Firearms Registry.
“Since the day I was first elected, way back in November 2000, I have
been committed to scrapping the Liberal/NDP long-gun registry,” Gallant
said.
“There have been many naysayers along the way who said it would not be
done. This proves just how wrong they were.
“I appreciate the support that the hunters and farmers and recreational
sportsmen have given me over the years. This bill is for them.”
Gallant said she always promised that if the Conservatives were elected
to a majority government, the registry would be scrapped.
“That day has come. Promise made, promise kept,” she said.
Speaking on the bill in the House of Commons Friday morning, Gallant
said that of all the issues she is “called upon to stand up for,” none
produces a “more emotional reaction” among her constituents in
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke than the gun registry.
“I am pleased to acknowledge the many farmers and hunters who have
stood by my side on this issue.
“We never doubted that one day we would be successful,” she said.
“This legislation is their victory.”
Gallant acknowledged that the gun registry was one of the main issues
that got her elected for the first time in 2000.
“I can state without a doubt that the crescendo of the first campaign
in which I was elected... was that night at an all-candidates meeting
at the Pembroke Outdoor Sportsman's Club.
“My opponent (former Liberal MP Hec Clouthier), who was the local
representative for the Liberal long-gun registry, told the packed crowd
that had jammed into the meeting that the long-gun registry would
remain in effect so they had better get a life.
“Everyone in the room that night and, as it would turn out, the
majority of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke voters resolved the give the
Liberal long-gun registry and all its supporters a taste of defeat,”
Gallant said.
“In a riding that had not voted Conservative in almost 70 years through
the Diefenbaker and Mulroney sweeps, a beachhead of freedom, as it was
characterized at the time, was established in Ontario in
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke.”
In fact, Gallant said that along with Conservative MP Scott Reid in the
neighbouring riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, “we
represented a grassroots movement for private property rights that is
now represented across the province and in the legislature of Ontario.”
“Who knew of the role that would be played by a group of hunters and
farmers, the rural people who built this country, who were fed up with
big government telling them what they could and could not do or the
pivotal role they would have in restoring the true representative
democracy of the people of Canada?” Gallant said.
“We were told we were wasting our time and that the Liberal long-gun
registry would never be eliminated.
“Opposition candidates in the five federal elections in which I
contested continually attacked my support for the people of
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke who wanted to see the Liberal long-gun
registry scrapped.
“They never wavered in their opposition to the registry and I never
wavered in my support for them,” she said.
“That brings us to today. The long-gun registry has to go. When it does
I will be celebrating with my constituents. The time has come for us to
get on with it.”
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