New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the world leader Justin Trudeau admires most, will not be coming to Canada this year.
In response to an email inquiry by the CSSA, Simone Gordon, Ardern’s private secretary, said she doesn’t know where these rumours came from, but she confirmed Ardern would not be coming to Canada.
“Most unfortunately, Prime Minister Ardern will not be coming to Canada this year,” she wrote in response to our request.
If Trudeau plans to announce a “sweeping gun ban” in Canada this summer, his virtue signalling will take place without New Zealand’s Prime Minister at his side.
On May 9, 2019, MP Tony Clement first suggested New Zealand’s head of state would be there to heap praise upon Trudeau for announcing “a sweeping gun ban.”
“Mister Speaker, I am told on good authority that the Prime Minister has a secret plan to ban legal firearms. Apparently this plan is to be executed by cabinet directive with no debate in Parliament. The Prime Minister plans to announce this gun ban at the Women Deliver Conference held in early June in Vancouver, where New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern will also attend. Can the Prime Minister confirm or deny this zero-accountability secret plan?”[i]
Responding on behalf of the absent Prime Minister, Bill Blair, Minister of Useless Gun Bans, would not confirm or deny such a plan.
“I just want to assure this House that our government remains absolutely committed to taking all measures that are effective in keeping Canadians safe.”
That’s all he would say.
Then on CTV’s May 19 edition of Question Period, Minister Blair all but confirmed the AR-15 would be banned by Order in Council, while declining to name the AR-15 specifically, or when the announcement would be made.
“I can tell you, there are weapons that are designed solely to kill people. Their whole intent and purpose is to be efficient in the killing of people, and we’ve seen in mass murders in Canada around the world that those weapons have been used for that purpose because they are efficient killing machines. I feel very strongly that there’s no place for those weapons in Canadian society.”[ii]
(Editor’s note: Is this why the government gives them to police officers? More to come.)
Now that we know Trudeau’s useless virtue signalling will be made in the absence of the one world leader he most wanted to impress, will the ban on AR-15 rifles go ahead?
Has the CSSA’s focus and overwhelming media exposure of this issue caused Jacinda Ardern to bail out on her new BFF?
Has the CSSA’s spotlight on this issue caused Justin Trudeau to back down from his government’s proposed gun ban?
This summer, we will know the answer.
Sources
[i] http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/XRender/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20190509/-1/31563
[ii] https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/blair-not-ruling-out-federal-order-to-implement-potential-handgun-ban-1.4427928#ctvqp
An Open Letter to Matt Gurney from a CSSA Member