[…] National Telegraph […]
Written By Wyatt Claypool, Posted on February 20, 2021
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was at a press conference yesterday where journalists were keen on getting his view as opposition leader on the Liberals’ new gun legislation, Bill C-21, which has been heavily criticized by the firearms community.
Most Conservatives would assume that the question from True North’s Andrew Lawton would have been a slam dunk for O’Toole in order to shore up his support with the firearms community.
In the below video (Starting at 5:00) Lawton simply asks if O’Toole was Prime Minister and formed a majority Conservative government “would you repeal this legislation (Bill C-21) and would you reverse those 1,500 prohibitions?”
As it can be seen in Erin O’Toole’s answer to Lawton’s question and follow up clarifying question, O’Toole mainly focused on Trudeau and the Liberals being “misleading” or “dividing” Canadians and “blaming” law-abiding people, which, in a vacuum, is a good answer to Trudeau’s approach to gun control, but at no point does O’Toole confirm he will repeal the OIC ban.
This is concerning as O’Toole had no problem saying he would reverse Trudeau’s Order In Council ban of 1,500 models of rifles during the Conservative leadership race, but now it seems like the words don’t come as easily.
If O’Toole is seeing that most Canadians currently support gun control in Canada and ergo he should pivot the Conservative party to the middle on gun control, he may be sorely mistaken.
Although polls do indicate a majority of Canadians support gun control, the polls at the same time do not demonstrate it is an important issue to most Canadians, and the questions also tend to be phrased in such a way as to obscure key information, such as uncritically pushing the phrase “assault-style weapons” which makes knowing Canadian’s true views hard to nail down.
(Photo from Victoria News)
It is unclear which voters O’Toole believes he will be winning by both opposing Bill C-21 but not pledging to reverse the instigating OIC gun ban, but this stance if not corrected will likely alienate or demotivate firearms owners from voting for the Conservative Party.
Lawton on his show on True North noted that many of O’Toole’s supporters seem to be making excuses for why O’Toole would not answer the question of repealing the OIC gun ban, but that they should not be surprised if O’Toole doesn’t follow through when he was previously unwilling to even state it as his position.
Lawton stated:
This idea of just wait until they are in there, and then you get what you want, just doesn’t work…I don’t have a lot of patience for it when people start defending answers that should have been very easy and aren’t given, because ‘well once he gets in he’s going to do that’
It seems odd to soften on the issue of gun rights as assuming that a minority of Canadians are opposed to Trudeau’s firearms ban where most support it, but trying to go after the votes of the majority O’Toole is having to fight for support on that issue against the Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Bloc Québécois, whereas he could simply monopolize the minority by taking a strong stance on firearms rights.
O’Toole and the Conservative Party seem to be trying to buy new, more left-leaning, supporters by ignoring the most conservative parts of their base, which is a strategy that still has not seen any positive payoff in the current polling numbers that have been coming out over the past few months.
It may be that O’Toole himself is not a strong believer in firearms rights ane he feels uncomfortable advocating strongly for gun owners, so despite strategic issues with moving to the left on gun issues he simply prefers to do so on an ideological level.
On February 23rd Erin O’Toole released a video committing to repealing both Bill C-21 along with the OIC firearms ban correcting his original non-answer on his position on repealing the OIC gun ban.
Wyatt is a student at Mount Royal University, where he is the president of its Campus Conservative club. In his writing, he focuses on covering provincial and federal politics, firearms regulation, and the energy sector. Wyatt has also previously written for The Post Millennial.
[…] National Telegraph […]
A well written report. Thanks for your effort. It raises awareness.
[…] National Telegraph […]
November 24, 2024
November 11, 2024
He can play the strategic game by not tipping his cards to the liberals. We know what they want. This is very cat and mouse at this point. A bait and hook strategy buy the liberals. Best be cautious
It isn’t as simple as saying he would repeal the May 1, 2020 OIC because the OIC is laced with poison pills like it also banned some rocket launchers and other actual military hardware. Can you imagen the backlash if O’Toole suddenly legalised anti-tank weapons. And lawyers are still unpacking the implications of some of the provisions in Bill 21.
To think we don’t have uniparty politics in Canada and that "conservatives" are any different is quite foolish. I voted once in my life for Doug Ford in a provincial election and I will never vote again. God help European Canadians.
Yes, God bless and help European Canadians. It is good to be European Canadian isn’t it? European Canadians set the deep and strong foundation stones of a once democratic, Judeo-Christian Canada founded on democratic principles of personal freedom, free speech, property rights, gratefully heir to the accumulated gifts of Enlightenment and Reformation thought.
European Canadians are waking up quickly realizing the Liberals and their aiding and abetting NDP sycophants are atomizing our precious ethnic identity, diluting it with culture and norms foreign to our history including its unique and precious heritage grown over hundreds and hundreds of years in Canada.
Obscene and illogical post-modern critical theories founded on intellectual foundations of sand, weak in logic or scholarly rigor, these "woke truths" infests the political class. Politics today degrades Canadian community and cohesion; isolates holistic majorities and champion only the current chosen woke identity group. It is tragic this weak intellectual gruel is constantly bombarding our children’s minds at Schools and Universities where activist Teachers and Professors behave like soviet propagandists bereft of any self awareness decimating these unsuspecting precious young minds. The result is tragic degradation of societal cohesiveness causing damage in untold ways evaporating community trust.
European Canadians recognize the vile damage done by Pierre Trudeau’s Multiculturalism Act and remain unsurprised as we bear witness to the dagger in the heart of all loyal and true Canadians of the soil, thrust by the spawn of Pierre’s flaccid loins our current Prime Minister Justine the lisping simpering globalist traitor.
Yes, God help European Canadians, but always remember that God helps those who help themselves. We are a strong, industrious, loyal, good people. Let’s help ourselves out for once shall we. Let’s be bold and exercise our freedom to speak truth and do so with courage and conviction. The progressive left fear truthful bold free speech. After the knee jerk, shrill, brittle slogans are chanted they are empty, devoid of factual, observed, rational thought wholly dependent on emotion and a hate brewed in slothful nihilism marinated in failed Marxist ideas. Weak, tragic something to be pitied.
It is good to be a European Canadian of the soil. I love our Nation, strong and free. Justine fears us. Good.