ERIN O'FLIPFLOP

» Changing stances to stay in the moderate good books

Matthew Fraser
Opinions Editor

 

he Canadian news cycle as of late

has been dominated by coverage
of the snap election called by Prime
Minister Trudeau. As leaders jockey for
positions and parties shift in the overall
standings, it has become clear that Erin
O’Toole’s Conservative party may have
a fighting chance at replacing Trudeaus’
Liberals. According to a Nanos Research
poll conducted for CTV News, though the
Conservatives are leading the Liberals
33.3 percent to 31.1 percent, this is
within their +/- 2.8 percent margin of
error. Both parties see this election as
theirs to win or lose.

So, it wasn’t particularly surprising
that Trudeau would do his utmost to
poke holes in the Conservative ship with
the hopes of pulling ahead. Out came
the accusations of O’Toole’s “belief ina
two-tiered, private, for-profit health care
system” and his hidden anti-abortion
stance (a point he has directly denied);
when those failed, it was time to bring
out the gun debate.

One of the things promised and
literally written into the Conservative
platform was a repeal of Bill C-21: the
2020 “assault-style weapons” ban.

This promise obviously excited gun
owners across the country and provided
ammunition to those who propose that
the ban was correct. Though | believe
that this statistic is largely due to
availability heuristics, (when an event
seems more common due to repeated
reference or familiarity), 47 percent

of Canadians surveyed believe gun
violence is a “threat to their community.”
So, it's not that surprising that the Liberal
party would use this to discredit O'Toole.

On September 5 when O'Toole was
asked about the ban he immediately
began waffling and flipflopping. At first,

6¢

he said he would not overturn the 1970s
ban on fully automatic firearms. Then,
as pressure mounted, he said he would
start a non-political, science-based look
into the efficacy of the ban. For what

it's worth, most of Canada's pro-gun
organizations publicly came out to show
support for even this change of wording.

This relatively brief shift was well
covered by the media and generated
significant coverage including a short
four-way debate on CTV News. But why
are guns on the docket for Canadians
this year? It certainly doesn’t seem like
there have been any note-worthy causes
for this, what’s the impetus?

It’s important to lay the groundwork
for Canada as the context for this
debate. There are a few things that
should be pointed out in order to have a
fair assessment of the gun debate in this
country and to attempt to remove the
taint of American problems. Primarily,
the most recent Statistics Canada
homicide data shows that of
the 743 people murdered
in 2020, 277 of them
were committed

using guns; this number is a slight
increase over 2019s 687 total murders
and 264 gun murders. Like all
Canadians, | agree that these
numbers are too high; it

should be our goal as a

country to get these

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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At first, he said he would not overturn the 1970s ban on fully automatic
firearms. Then, as pressure mounted, he said he would start a
non-political, science-based look into the efficacy of the 2020 ban.