The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Flin Flon MP Bev Desjarlais lashed out at the federal gun registry yesterday, vowing to work to have the controversial program shot down in parliament. "I have always been opposed to the registry, from the very beginning, and I continue to oppose it now," the New Democrat seeking reelection said in a campaign press release. "I will make sure that the opinion of northern residents is heard by pushing hard within my own caucus, and in parliament, for a complete scrapping of the gun registry." Branding the registry unfixable, Desjarlais said her party is willing to eliminate the system and start fresh with a gun control program that "takes into account the needs and rights of rural and northern residents, aboriginals, and sport gun owners." Desjarlais' campaign press release called the registry "the most mismanaged government program in Canadian history." The gun registry is not mentioned in the NDP's election platform, and Desjarlais believes that there is not yet a consensus position on the matter within the party. The Conservative Party of Canada has also blasted the registry, vowing to scrap the program and divert the savings to hire 200 more Mounties and pay for a national sex-offender registry. Leader Stephen Harper said nixing the registry would save between $25 million and $100 million a year in maintenance costs.
