[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]"Promise made, promise kept"
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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Mer 2 Nov 2011 - 21:46