Now that the sweet days of summer are becoming shorter, and our politicians are beginning to sound the themes with which they will torment us through the Fall, it’s almost charming that right at the top of the list is our old friend the long-gun registry. Vampire? Energizer Bunny? Terminator? It’s difficult to pick the apposite metaphor for the gun control issue. Its one undeniable quality, perhaps its political essence so to speak, is that it never quite goes away.
Just how long have Canadians been having a back-and-forth on this business? It was in 1995 that Alan Rock (then Justice Minister in the towering days of the Chrétien ascendancy) brought the useless and hopelessly confused gun-registry to light. That’s 15 years ago. It’s melancholy to think that there are now fully mature Lady Gaga fans who were just past teething when Mr. Rock introduced this rancorous and unkillable issue into Canadian public life.
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When the house was debating this bill for the third and final time, last spring, the Liberals introduced a bill to throw it out. A tactic (supported by all opposition parties) which could gain nothing but a delay of the vote on the Conservative bill.
How does this come, in your mind, to constitute manipulation by PMSH, Mr. Murphy?