A new public opinion survey has uncovered evenly-divided opinion about the government’s dismantling of the federal long-gun registry, nearly a year after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives used their majority to pass legislation in Parliament to end the gun-tracking system.A Forum Research survey last week found 41 per cent of Canadians approving the controversial measure to dismantle the registry of rifles and shotguns and 41 per cent saying they disapproved of it.
At the same time, the Forum Research poll found a slim 51-per-cent majority of Canadians, fuelled by an overwhelming majority in Quebec, want stricter gun controls in Canada.
Disapproval of dismantling the registry was highest in Quebec at 65 per cent, with approval for ending the federal gun-tracking system highest in the three Prairie provinces at just over 60 per cent and in British Columbia at 51 per cent—the only three provinces where a majority approved the measure.
Only 33 per cent of women approved of the decision to kill the rifle and shotgun registry, with 43 per cent disapproving and 23 per cent saying they did not know whether they approved or disapproved. Fully 50 per cent of men approved, while 39 per cent disapproved and 12 per cent did not know what position to take.
Disapproval of the decision to end the registry was highest among those earning more than $60,000 a year—up to 47 per cent disapproval among those earning more than $100,000 a year.
The mixed signals—majority support for tighter gun control and only 41 per cent disapproval of ending the registry—are perplexing, said Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff.
“While there is a consensus for existing or stricter gun control measures, Canadians appear to be happy to lose the one basic gun control measure they had, the long-gun registry,” Mr. Bozinoff told The Hill Times.
But the president of the Coalition for Gun Control, Wendy Cukier, blames the confusing signals on the lead taken by Canadian politicians, who even after the Sandy Hook School shooting death of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Conn., last month did not raise a hue and cry about the Conservative decision to end the long-gun registry and destroy its records.
Only a week before the shootings, Liberal leadership hopeful Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) described the Canadian gun registry as a failure, even though it had been established by a Liberal government under former prime minister Jean Chrétien. At the time, Mr. Trudeau was in Hawkesbury, Ont., one of many rural areas where voters had shifted to the Conservative Party from the Liberals over the past three elections as Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his Conservatives successfully used division over the registry against the Liberal party and the NDP.
Although Mr. Trudeau’s highly-publicized position was disputed by several women running for the Liberal leadership, Liberal MP Marc Garneau (Westmount-Ville Marie, Que.), who later entered the race, and interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) declined to comment, saying there was no point because the Conservatives had already killed the registry.
Ms. Cukier pointed out Australia’s former prime minister John Howard, a close friend of Mr. Harper’s, recently used The New York Timesto defend the tougher gun control and registry laws that his government established in Australia. Mr. Howard was commenting in reaction to pressure for tighter U.S. gun control following the Sandy Hook killings.
“The Canadian experience parallels that of Australia, with the number of gun deaths reduced by over 35 per cent since the introduction of the registry and yet it is labelled a failure,” Ms. Cukier said in an email to The Hill Times.
“I am sure that the political rhetoric in Canada has obscured the clear evidence that the registry worked and has something to do with the polling results,” Ms. Cukier said.
During Commons committee hearings into Bill C-19, the legislation the governing Conservatives passed through Parliament to end the registry, the government packed committee hearings with witnesses, including members of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ (Provencher, Man.) publicly-appointed Firearms Advisory Committee, to argue other factors, including the aging of a generation of baby boomers, were behind the decline in long-gun homicides and injury.
Mr. Howard recently wrote an opinion article, published in The New York Times, to describe how he and his Australian Liberal Party, governing in a coalition with the Conservative Australian National party, overcame rural conservative opposition to bring in stringent gun control following a notorious massacre where a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 35 people in the Australian state of Tasmania.
Mr. Howard wrote the article in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s attempt to stiffen gun control following the Sandy Hook shootings.
“Few Australians would deny that their country is safer today as a consequence of gun control,” Mr. Howard concluded in his article.
While the Forum Research poll found 70 per cent of Quebecers favour stricter gun control, a minority in all the other provinces supported the idea, with Ontario the next highest at 49 per cent. Support for stricter gun control was lowest in the four western provinces—from 32 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to 42 per cent in B.C.
In the four Atlantic provinces, 46 per cent of respondents said they support stricter gun control. Forty-nine per cent of Atlantic Canadians approved of the dismantling of the long gun registry and 37 per cent disapproved of the measure.
Only 32 per cent of Conservative voters favoured stricter gun control, while 56 per cent of Liberal supporters and 60 per cent of NDP supporters want tighter controls. Support among Green Party voters registered at 49 per cent.
The Forum Research poll, conducted last Wednesday Jan. 16 and Thursday Jan. 17, was a voice interactive telephone survey of 1,626 voting-age Canadians with a margin of error of two per cent 19 times out of 20.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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