How Many Positions Does Justin Trudeau Have on the Long-Gun Registry?
It’s understandable if you’re confused about where Justin stands when it comes to the long-gun registry. In a matter of a week, he’s confirmed suspicions that his policy positions depend on what region of the country he is in and who he is talking to.
Prior to this weekend, Justin’s well-documented position was that, “the (long gun) registry saves lives. Look at statistics. There have been many many people saved by the registry.”
While it’s not a position that I, or my party, agrees with, at least we knew where he stood. Like the vast majority of his Liberal colleagues who voted time and time again to keep the registry, we knew that Justin was in favour of seeing more of your hard-earned tax dollars wasted on the ineffective registry.
Cut to this past weekend in rural Ontario, where he acknowledged what we’ve been saying for years – the long-gun registry was “a failure.” So why did Mr. Trudeau stand up in the House of Commons and vote 17 times to keep this ‘failure’?
He had this to say by way of explanation, in Quebec, a few days later: “I voted to keep the firearms registry a few months ago and if we had a vote tomorrow I would vote once again to keep the long-gun registry…However, the definition of a failed public policy is the fact that the long-gun registry is no more… The fact is, because it was so deeply divisive for far too many people, it no longer exists.”
Not stopping there, when asked by a Quebec reporter about Quebec’s legal fight to keep its portion of the registry he replied, “I find it’s a very good idea. Because in Quebec it was not at all as divisive as it was elsewhere in the country. Perhaps a solution is to let provinces find different solutions. What’s important is protecting Quebecers from gun violence.”
That leads us to the following conclusion: If he’s in Ottawa, he likes the registry. If he’s in rural Ontario, it’s a failure. If he’s in Quebec, it’s a very good idea. And if he’s in Alberta, he’s just very sorry.
Even Justin’s fellow Liberals have been left scratching their heads. Canadians won’t fall for this opportunistic double talk.
