PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA FEDERAL ELECTION 2019
At an all-candidates forum held last week at the Algonquin Theatre, Parry Sound-Muskoka candidates were posed this question on gun control from a member of the audience: “…I’m just wondering about the huge increase in gun crime in this country and how you feel personally about banning handguns and AK47s.”
These were the candidate’s responses in the order they spoke, followed by additional comments from the two who used their opportunity for rebuttal. Each candidate had one minute to respond.
Scott Aitchison, Conservative Party
Thank you for raising the question. I’m not in favor of actually banning handguns. I think it’s political doublespeak to suggest that banning handguns is going to solve gun crimes in the big cities. I think that it’s important for us to understand where those guns are coming from—they’re being smuggled in from the United States. I think it’s important for us to understand the root causes of why people join gangs in the first place. And I think we need to deal with those issues.It’s going to take longer. It’s not an easy fix. And so I’m offended by politicians who throw a hand gun ban out as a solution to real problems. So I’m not in favor of anything until we deal with the root problems, the cause of the violence in the first place.
(The Conservative Party has not yet released its full campaign platform. See their website here.)
Tom Young, NDP
Well, we are in support of gun control, for sure, we’ve got to get serious about that. There’s too much murders and stuff going on now. We need to get tougher with the gun smuggling that’s coming across the border. And we also need to get tougher in our justice system, when it comes to things like that. So we are definitely in support of the kind of control and a lot tougher than we have right now.
(See the NDP campaign platform here.)
Gord Miller, Green Party
… let’s go on record, AK47s are a prohibited weapon in this country, you cannot have one, you cannot own one and to do so is a serious crime. Handguns are, some are owned by people in shooting clubs and they are highly regulated in this country, but the kind of thing that you’re talking about are the handguns in the hands of gangs and criminals in the cities that have resulted in recent killings and shootings of all sorts. Those are overwhelmingly smuggled into this country from the United States. …Our party position is don’t pursue long guns, which are used for hunting and normal use on rural properties. But let’s crack down on the trans-boundary smuggling of handguns, which are used in criminal activities.
(See the Green Party campaign platform here.)
Trisha Cowie, Liberal
Well, Scott, be prepared to be offended, because I do agree that we need to take military-grade weapons out of the hands of civilians. There’s no reason for a member of the public to have military-grade weapons. And the…Liberal Party has pledged to remove or to ban military-grade weapons, which is really important, because we don’t want to be reactive when it comes to people’s lives, we have to be proactive. And that’s not to disagree to say we have to deal with other issues, we do, we have to look at the root of violence as well. But this is one way that we know will work. When it comes to handguns, we’ve also committed to leave that up to municipalities. So Parry Sound-Muskoka is not the same as Toronto. And so we will leave it with the people who know best in their areas with regard to handguns. But we need to be able to respond to the rise in gun violence. There has been a lot of money put into fighting that, the guns and gangs across the border with the border security and with the RCMP, and we provide those guys… (out of time)
(See the Liberal Party campaign platform here.)
Gord Miller, Green (rebuttal)
I just want to be careful because there’s a lot of vague language [in] military-grade weapons. I don’t know what that is. I know what shot guns are. I know about that kind of thing, I know about deer hunting, but don’t know what military-grade weapons are and I think when you use language like that you have to be very careful, because if you’re going to ban military-grade weapons, it can easily creep into the kind of long gun ban that the hunting and recreational industry depends on and I wouldn’t be in favour of it.
Scott Aitchison, Conservative (rebuttal)
Yeah, I think that Gord made a really good point. I think that, you know, we’re talking about the issues that are going on right now, you see them all on the news. It’s not military-grade weapons—we’re talking about handgun violence amongst gangs in Toronto. We are very different than Toronto. That’s very true. And if the Liberals want to come up with some kind of a system that somehow gets around the Constitution and lets cities do their own thing with handgun bans, that’s fine, they can try to do that. But what I’m saying is that any kind of ban or coming up with something like military-grade, like you said, doesn’t address the real issue. And it’s disingenuous to suggest that banning something that, you know, is in the news like handguns are is going to solve a problem. We need to deal with the problem itself, not what’s gonna make us feel better.
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Assault is an action, not an object, assault rifle is hollow BS. Why don’t we ban media that shows firearms used to hurt or kill others? 50 years ago; TV went off before midnight and we had nowhere near the violence in our society. People break the law, not objects. Liberal should get a dictionary (and a brain).
But Elizabeth you didn’t say how many gun related deaths happen there each year after all that is what we are talking about I think And the U.S. is a different country no one knows for sure just what is going on down there. My way of thinking is parents should be able to discipline there children with a bit of force if needed without the fear of being charged with child abuse just maybe then our young people would have some respect for then selves plus other people.
“most criminals seem to come from one group of people…”
What exactly do you mean by this?
Bob, I agree let’s be honest. The truth is that every one of the 5 governments in Ontario since 1990 (Rae, Harris, Eves, McGuinty, Wynn) added to the debt. But it is meaningless to talk about the debt without talking about the context. Rae faced the 1991 recession. Harris downloaded costs to the municipalities, McGuinty uploaded those costs the municipalities could not handle and also faced the 2008 recession. In 2018, Ontario’s debt to GDP ratio at 43% was in the middle of Canadian provinces. That was after a big drop in Ontario GDP due to big loss of auto manufacturing jobs after the 2008 recession. Nice to have it lower, but our debt was and is far from black picture some would like to paint for political purposes. Debt is not a bad thing if is the result of investing wisely in the future. That is how billionaires get rich.
Back to the question of how to reduce gun violence. If we are indeed short of funds to improve the social conditions leading to gangs and gun violence, all the more reason to assemble a non-partisan task force to learn from for the most successful models in other countries rather than wasting time re-inventing the wheel or relying on guesswork and uninformed opinions.
This 2016 CBC story gives some rationale – (https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/small-arms-survey-countries-with-the-most-guns-1.3392204)
Switzerland has 45.7 guns per 100 residents.
Switzerland is alone in Western Europe in its attitude toward gun ownership. Swiss men, all considered part of the militia after mandatory arms training, are permitted to keep their service rifles at home. In contrast to the Small Arms Survey figures, government numbers put gun ownership at about 25 for every 100 Swiss.
The same story quotes US# at 88.8 guns for every 100 residents.
Hugh you never mentioned Switzerland on your comment Wonder why from what I read a few days ago Switzerland has the highest number of guns per person in the world but has the lowest gun crime check it out.
Rob there is a big difference between automatic and semi-automatic guns and a lot of hunting rifles are semi-automatic but most have clips or magazines that only hold 5 shells when your talking full automatic they are almost all assault weapons that are illegal to own in Canada now.
Hugh Holland … Let’s be honest and factual about the situation in Ont! It was NOT Ford who created the financial situation in Ont with uncontrolled Liberal spending on EVERYTHING with the only Liberal plan was to increase taxes and .. continue on with Liberal spending with NO revenue stream to pay for EVERYTHING! i.e … Like the Liberal feds are doing now! FORD is trying to correct the 15 years of Liberal Chaos! Use Google and check the debt #’s …now ..for ONT … and .. do likewise for the Liberal Feds .. now .. and ..what the Liberal FEDS plan to do in the future!
Scott
I totally agree with you. People are the issue.
The data indicates that many of the countries with a lower rate of gun deaths per capita than Canada are islands (Japan, UK, Australia, New Zealand). But Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have open borders and they are also below Canada’s rate of two gun-deaths per 100,000.
Canada has the unique challenge of living across a 6,400-kilometer border from the country with the world’s highest rate of gun ownership (120 guns per 100 people) That makes border control of guns very important, very difficult, and very costly. The USA has 3.4 times more guns per person than Canada and their rate of gun deaths is 6 times Canada. But we have experienced a recent alarming Chicago-Style increase in our biggest city. We do need to do something about it.
So, what is the answer? Rather than relying on the opinions of partially-informed politicians and citizens, why not set up a non-partisan committee to do an in-depth study to learn what makes those countries more successful on this measure than Canada? Scott, I agree with you that addressing the underlying social problems related to gun violence is critical. But education is perhaps the most important remedy and Ford’s cuts to education appear to be going in the wrong direction. What would the federal conservatives do about Ford’s cuts?
I think that banning handguns, in concert with an aggressive program to intercept them at the border, should be the logical initial step. Unfortunately, attacking the root causes of violence, while definitely part of the long-term solution, would certainly be the subject of inquiries, inquests, or even Royal Commissions; in other words, simply not of any efficacy NOW. If I may be allowed to interpret for Mr. Miller, I believe that military-grade weapons refers exclusively to automatic and semi-automatic weapons: such weapons are almost exclusively used in massacres; which have no place in Canada, or any other civilized society.
The weak point are the laws and the Judges. Our police place their lives on the line capturing these
criminals and the courts/Judges don’t want to hurt feelings so out on bail again!
Most criminals seem to be from one group of people and they hold a large voting block come
an election so lets be lenient even if they kill someone. Votes matter! Lives?
Without Prejudice.
If you ban hand guns why do you think it will make a difference the people that use hand guns or any gun for crime don’t give a darn if they are banned or not. If they are not registered hand guns they are illegal so why would they care if they are banned. It’s time to start getting tough on the people carrying hand guns on the street If your found on the street with a hand gun it should be a year in jail no questions asked not a slap on the wrist and let out on bail
Guns don’t Kill. People kill, guns in the wrong hands kill. How do we stop the underground weapons secured by the criminals. Think about it! It won’t happen.