Gun owners ready for change
A Message from O.F.A.H. Executive Director Mike Reader
Angler & Hunter Hotline - March 2006

On January 23, Canadians voted for change and no one wanted it more than beleaguered gun owners. After twelve long years of bullheaded ideas about gun control, backed by a colossal waste of tax dollars to create a registry, many gun owners voted "blue" because they saw plans for confiscation painted in "red."

The day after the election, O.F.A.H. phones were ringing as some gun owners immediately wanted to know when we thought Prime Minister Stephen Harper was planning to pull the pin on the long gun registry. As if he were the heroic Lone Ranger, many gun owners envisioned their new Prime Minister bravely riding straight into Ottawa to win Canada's gun fight.

Sorry, but only in the movies do things happen so easily.

While Canadians can be relieved that our Prime Minister does not have wacky ideas about gun control, let's not be so naïve to think that his minority government will win Parliament's support to instantly blow away the long gun registry. After all, we know how much the opposition party loves their pet gun registry project.

As hard as he may try to scrap the gun registry, a powerful group of Liberal, NDP and Bloc members who openly support the program will, no doubt, band together to defeat the Prime Minister's promise to the O.F.A.H. – and his promise to Canadians. That is a reality.

The gun registry battle aside, we should at least expect that our new government won't kick down the door of farmers and hunters every time some punk or lunatic opens fire in our streets. We should at least expect that this government will actually start addressing real issues in places like Vancouver and Toronto, and stop making registry support payments to Miramichi. And, we should at least expect that this government will begin dismantling the gun registry by choking it financially (again their plans may be thwarted by the opposition.)

Although time will tell for Conservative party promises, the O.F.A.H. is prepared to fight harder than ever for our members, and we're determined that, with their continued support, Canadians will soon see the end of the registry.

In the meantime, O.F.A.H. members may be encouraged that Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't like the gun registry any more than we do. That is a fact that he made abundantly clear when he spent the afternoon and evening with the O.F.A.H. only 11 months before he became the Prime Minister of Canada.

Before delivering his keynote address at last year's O.F.A.H. Conference, your Federation and its provincial affiliates enjoyed sitting down with the, then, Opposition Leader. Our frank discussions about national outdoors issues (gun registry, Chronic Wasting Disease, lead tackle bans, etc.) gave us hope that a new federal government might actually be prepared to listen to anglers and hunters.

After visiting with our staff at O.F.A.H. head office, and having already met the outdoor industry at the Spring Fishing Show, as well as O.F.A.H. members at our Conference, the new Prime Minister of Canada knows that we are a tenacious, action-oriented organization. He has learned what O.F.A.H. members believe in and stand up for, and he knows that we will work with his party – and his opposition – to get results for the outdoors community.

Good luck on your new job, Mr. Harper. Canadians are counting on you.