PUBLICATION:
The
StarPhoenix (
DATE:
2004.12.13
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Forum
PAGE:
A8
SOURCE:
The StarPhoenix
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Martin
fails to deliver on promises
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One
suspects that former prime minister Jean Chretien, who considers himself a fine
golfer, would have little difficulty walloping his successor on the links. It's
all in the follow-through.
Chretien
took pride in the fact he didn't identify with Western Canadians. He was a
Golden Triangle boy who proudly enacted policies that openly spurned the West
and he followed through -- even when it meant he had to give his old buddy Roy
Romanow the bum's rush when he came asking for a fair deal on agriculture.
Chretien
also tenaciously clung to the discredited policy of registering each rifle and
every law-abiding long-gun owner in
Even
though it cost the Liberals all but a handful of the seats between the
Manitoba-Saskatchewan border and
Prime
Minister Paul Martin, on the other hand, waltzed his way into the prime
minister's office by promising he would do politics differently, empower his
backbenchers and that he wouldn't rest until the West felt included. He stuck to
that promise right up until his suitcases were unpacked at
Last
week, he forced every MP in his Liberal caucus to vote against a motion that
originated on his side of the Commons to cut funding for the discredited
long-gun registry. The motion would have addressed the greatest bone of
contention in the West.
The
controversy arose when Roger Gallaway, Liberal MP for Sarnia-Lambton in the
heart of the Golden Triangle, proposed a motion to stop funding the hemorrhaging
long-gun registry program.
Gallaway
was a stalwart Martin supporter in the days when the pretender was touting
financial prudence, democratic reform and inclusion politics in his bid to
unseat Chretien. If the naive MP thought he could be carried along on the winds
of Martin's follow-through, he was soon brought to reality.
"I
would be disappointed if anyone (proposed scrapping the program)," Deputy
Prime Minister Ann McLellan said when she heard of Gallaway's motion. "But
(I) would be particularly disappointed when that person comes from the
government and Liberal party."
Apparently,
forcing otherwise law abiding rural folks to undergo the humiliating process of
criminal checks and re-registration continuously, is the only solution
McLellan's
view may be distorted by real gun violence, such as the gangland shooting in
So
ineffective is this registration law that even activists determined to be
arrested for violating it (such as
To
make things even more confusing, advocates of the law, such as the PM's
spokesperson Scott Reid, simply don't understand it.
"The
certain consequence (of Gallaway's motion) would be that
Just
a reminder to Reid -- Congress this fall passed a bill that allows foreign-made
assault rifles (such as the notorious AK-47) to be sold in the U.S. and just
last week, an omnibus spending bill passed that blocks funding to help local and
state governments prosecute crimes involving black-market guns.
The
American gun culture hasn't ever made its way north of the border -- a fact that
goes unrecognized or poorly understood in the bastions of social engineering in
Finance
Minister Ralph Goodale insists he won't allow it to cost more than the $85
million he is allotting it in 2005-06 (with a maximum $25 million going to
registry, with the remainder going to other aspects such as training and
safety). Goodale, who has become the orphaned Liberal from
Unfortunately, his boss is
gaining the opposite reputation.