Dewey -

I suspect ypu are right.

As to the refugees", what the politicos are really looking forward to is voters. And folks with no history of freedom or land ownership, or making their own governmental decisions make perfect "new voters" for a while. Give them some crumbs and they'll vote for you. For a while.

What the politicos don't understand is that if you give people great expectations and then only a relative little by way of fulfillment of their wildest dreams, those politicos have just laid the groundwork for violent revolution.

It (violent revolution) stands a good chance of happening here in the 'States in the next 20 years, as politicians of both extremes have been promising their followers more and more and more. They promise them more money, they promise them greater security, and they promise them ideological superiority through plurality in Congress...on both the left and right.

That polarizes society and makes working compromise impossible. Without true compromise, democracy cannot exist in the long run.

Thus one side (or both) will try to make THEIR view into THE view and fulfill THEIR aspirations, by force.

It's a slippery slope. Immigration works if limited to those numbers who can learn democracy by being assimilated in every sense of the word. Otherwise it will end in disaster, as the US. should have learned when it forcibly brought large numbers of Africans here as "property", then tried to salve their conscionces (sp?) by giving them the rights of citizenry and some equality bit by bit. The new "African-Americans'" expectations soared but weren't met as fast as they expected, so they are resentful and almost pathologically angry.

Britain should have learned it when it gave "independence" to its colonies and saw the results of that. The new "countries" had great hopes, which weren't met because the bulk of them had never been assimilated into self governing responsibilities. They (Britain) didn't learn. They allowed unlimited immigration to all citizens of former British Empire colonies. That gave Britain massive new unassimilated populations with high hopes but no means of achieving those hopes in a country with limited land and other resources. Now they have riots in the streets.

Canada cannot defy history, and historically that's what happens (civic unrest and eventually revolution) when expectations rise a great rate faster than fulfillments. If that happens with masses of people, massive problems result.


Best wishes, friend, and best wishes to my two countries. I only hope I don't live long enough to see them both destroy themselves.

Folks, if I can point out, the House isn't even sitting right now. Gov't doesn't table legislation when the House isn't in session.

They may float the odd trial balloon, but this one's already been run up the flagpole and saluted. Have some patience.

And Harper doesn't need to cater to those blue-collar voters for the next three years. He has a majority.

What will happen with your government with Layton's passing? Will your guns registerer finally have more momentum to stop?

What is interesting is that while Jack Laytons and the NDP's biggest coup was becoming the Official Opposition, they wield less influence now than they did in the last minority governments. No longer can they play the "deal maker" and demand concessions to get Bills passed. With the CPC majority, if the CPC wanted to pas a bill outlawing the Canadian invented game of basketball, they could....Now if they tried to outlaw hockey, the torches and pitchforks would descend on Ottawa!

As for the registry- It is going to die within 100 days of sitting in Parliament, as promised. This is a good time to get other things added tot he bill that would do so, like combining ATT's with PALs, etc. Killing the LGR is good, adding extras would be great!

I hope the registry will die. But will only believe it when I see it.

Feds pledge to scrap long-gun registry

By Bryn Weese, Parliamentary Bureau

Government House leader Peter Van Loan talks to members of the media on the first day back to the start of the new session of Parliament, in Ottawa, Sept. 19, 2011. Chris Roussakis/QMI Agency

The Conservative government will introduce legislation this fall to kill the controversial long-gun registry, according to government House leader Peter Van Loan.

"We committed to eliminate once and for all the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry. We will keep that commitment," Van Loan told reporters Monday. "It will be an item of legislation we will deal with in this fall session."

But NDP justice critic Joe Comartin doesn't believe the Tories will have time to do it because they have also pledged to push through a huge omnibus crime and justice bill.

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner introduced a private member's bill a year ago aimed at scrapping the registry, and despite initial support from some Liberals and NDP MPs, her bill was ultimately thrown out.

Liberal interim leader Bob Rae said Monday his party will likely side with the country's police chiefs who have spoken out in favour of the program.

"I find them (police chiefs) very consistent in saying that having some kind of a registry that gives people an idea as to who has what is a good idea," Rae said. "The government is obviously determined to go ahead, and we'll have an argument about it in Parliament."


But both the NDP and Liberal caucuses have shown divisions over the issue in the past. Eight Liberals and 12 NDPers voted in favour of Hoeppner's bill at second reading.

Later, then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff insisted all Grit MPs vote to save the registry.

Rae said whipping his party members this time might be more difficult.

"We're going to be discussing among ourselves what steps we're going to be taking," he said.

Comartin said even if the government succeeds in scrapping the registry, some provinces -- Ontario, Quebec and B.C. -- have mused about introducing provincial ones. The NDP, he said, "overwhelmingly" supports keeping the registry, especially since more than half the caucus is now from Quebec, where support for the registry is high.

"It is a divisive issue for us, we're not hiding from that, but overwhelmingly the numbers (in caucus) are in favour of keeping it," he said. "We've got some problems with parts of it, but overall we're supportive of it."

With the influx of Quebec MPs, the NDPers who oppose the registry now have a "proportionally much quieter voice" in caucus, Comartin said.

The long-gun registry was included as part of a larger gun-control bill introduced in 1993 by then-prime minister Jean Chretien and his justice minister Allan Rock.

The move immediately drew fire from rural Canadians and the estimated two million long-gun owners in Canada who argued it unfairly demonizes them.

While the Liberal government estimated the cost of the long-gun registry at $2 million in 1995, former auditor general Sheila Fraser discovered the program had actually cost taxpayers well over $1 billion.

Estimates peg the annual operating costs of the registry at around $4 million.

Long-gun registry to be shot down Thursday

By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau

Parliament Hill is seen behind the Eternal Flame in Ottawa. (QMI Agency files)

OTTAWA -- The feds are taking aim at the controversial long-gun registry Thursday when they are expected to table a bill to scrap it.

The bill is expected to pass easily in the Conservative majority Parliament.

According to Sara MacIntyre, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister, this bill is a "priority" for the government.

"It is one of our commitments. It is something we're moving forward on," MacIntyre said Wednesday. "It's a priority piece of legislation."

While the order paper notice only hints at amendments to the Firearms Act, a source close to the file told QMI Agency the bill is expected to fully repeal the requirement to register long-guns. It will also re-write the Firearms Act to specify only restricted and prohibited firearms need to be registered.

Also, according to the source, all long-gun registry records will be destroyed.


The long-gun registry was introduced in 1995 by Jean Chretien's Liberal government and while it said the program would only cost $2 million, costs ballooned to over $1 billion.

Gun control advocates and the country's chiefs of police have argued it provides valuable information to officers, and have also suggested it has lowered rates of domestic violence.

Critics, though, have blasted the registry as ineffective and wasteful, and say it does not improve public safety, but rather targets law-abiding shotgun and rifle owners.

good riddance to bad rubbish

One has to fight for what is right. Job well done.

Mike