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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Long-gun registry drives wedge in NDP

By: Peter O'Neil

Posted: 11/23/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

NDP MP Niki Ashton (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

OTTAWA -- A rural-urban split has opened up in the federal NDP leadership race over whether the official Opposition should promise Canadians it will try to reverse the Harper government's pending destruction of the national long-gun registry.

Brian Topp, the Montreal-born Toronto union leader considered a front-runner, said as prime minister, he would attempt to revive the program to register all long guns.

His only caveat is that an NDP government would need to avoid the litany of errors that resulted in the Liberal program, first projected in 1995 to cost $2 million, ending up with a price tag estimated at as much as $2 billion.

"I believe there should be a registry and if the Conservatives abolish it then I think we'll have to look for ways -- practical steps that don't involve that kind of expenditure -- to have such a registry," Topp said.

But Nathan Cullen of northern B.C., one of at least four of the nine candidates opposed to the idea, said such a move would make the NDP once again vulnerable to divisive Tory wedge politics. "I think it is problematic and I think Brian knows that," Cullen said.

Two other urban MPs seeking to replace the late Jack Layton -- Peggy Nash of Toronto and Paul Dewar of Ottawa -- are also in favour of bringing back the registry.

Pro-registry candidates say they want to avoid the cumbersome bureaucracy and huge costs that alienated many Canadians, especially in rural areas.

A fourth big-city candidate, Thomas Mulcair of Montreal, said through a spokesman that he wasn't taking a position on the issue at this time.

Cullen and three other candidates -- Niki Ashton of the remote Churchill riding in Manitoba; Robert Chisholm of Dartmouth, N.S.; and Martin Singh of Musquodoboit Harbour, near Halifax -- said they wouldn't bring it back.

The ninth candidate, Romeo Saganash of a vast northern Quebec riding, didn't respond to interview requests.

A parliamentary committee is studying the Tory legislation to kill the registry. It's expected MPs will vote on it at the end of the month.

The government says the registry, sparked by the mass shooting of 14 female students in Montreal in 1989, has little use and puts an unfair burden on rural Canadians who resent being portrayed as part of the crime problem.

But supporters say the registry is a useful tool to help police track ownership of weapons. Some have argued it has played a role in the reduction since 1995 of Canada's suicide rate.

The issue has troubled the NDP, which has a number of MPs in rural Canada but is seeking a breakthrough in urban areas.

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 23, 2011 A3

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