Word today that the Federal government has withdrawn a couple of amendments to Bill C-21 that were quite controversial. They had the effect of banning some weapons that could be used by hunters even though those weapons did not fall under the definition of "assault weapons" per se but they had some characteristics in common. Note that there are such things as semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have the primary purpose of being used for hunting. Looking at them they do not look like assault weapons, such as the AR-15. My father owned both a semi-automatic rifle and shotgun when he was alive. I had no problem with the amendments as I stated in my previous post but I also have no problems with their withdrawal either. To be honest I really did not care that much either way. I could see both sides of the argument for and against and I agreed with parts of both.
Of course, this will not stop the usual suspects from claiming that the Liberals "surrendered", capitulated" or "flipflopped" and of course they would be wrong.
It is actually quite rare for governments to give into pressure, especially when the policy they are pursuing is popular amongst the coalition that put them in power and they know that it will not hurt them because the people most effected by the policy would not vote for them any way. There were several instances where the Harper Conservatives found themselves in the same position and their reaction was to dig in and then spend alot of money on advertizements attacking the Liberals and/or the leader of the party.
The current Federal government did not do that. They actually weighed the evidence and reconsidered their initial decision, despite knowing how it would play with their opponents, knowing that it would not help them one bit with those rural voters who already hate them and knowing that their gun control policies are quite popular with their voters. It was a hard decision and they made it.
One other thing. I have always said that we should ignore the polls and watch what the political parties are doing to gauge which way the political winds are blowing. If we are to believe the polls the Liberals are down, in relation to the Conservatives, but this decision would seem to indicate otherwise. Quite frankly, if the polls were correct the Liberals would not have taken this decision. They would be doing whatever they could to maintain the support of the coalition that put them in the government benches and their gun control policies are very popular with those very voters. Instead they took this decision, which will not help them one bit politically. A very strange decision from a government that pollsters are saying is in trouble.
By the way, if you are one who does believe the polls I am looking for investors to build a bridge between Victoria and Tokyo Japan. If you are interested please leave your banking information in the comments to this post.
This government has shown that it is not afraid to make tough decisions, even though such decisions might be controversial. The two big ones were to finally pull the plug on the farce that was the Parliamentary Committee to examine electoral reform and the purchase of the TMX. But those two decisions were rather early in their time in government. The fact that they are still making tough decisions at this time is quite telling.
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The other hard decision is sticking by the anti-Islamphobia envoy despite a hue and cry from Quebec. Some ostensibly liberal journalists are going full mask off in their analysis and commentary around this, and it is really revealing an ugliness about them. They need to really think about what it is they're saying and the context of it: would they have tone-policed RFK in the 1960s for hurting the feelings of George Wallace? The PM must know that he is on the right side of history, whether his most vicious critics or sectors of the electorate want to admit it or not.
I remember when the PM was asked if he rushed into invoking the Emergencies Act and he said no, that he was circumspect and weighed all the pros and cons and the evidence and the security scenarios and what-ifs, and didn't actually make a final decision until the day of. He was then asked if he regretted the declaration, and he said "I am absolutely, absolutely serene and confident that I made the right choice."
He is getting a lot of undeserved flak in his home province for this appointment of Elghawaby, but that phrase came to my mind as something that's probably going through his head right now. He will probably lose a chunk of support in Quebec for it, but he's determined to stick to his guns, so to speak. They need to own up to uncomfortable truths there, and the PM is not afraid to hold that mirror up, whatever the consequences or not. "Do or do not, there is no try."
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