NDP MP to flip his vote on long-gun registry
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 | 5:58 PM ET
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NDP MP Charlie Angus, who previously supported a Conservative bill to kill the long-gun registry, says he can no longer "stand beside" the Conservatives on the next vote on the bill.
Angus told CBC's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon that he has been turned off by comments made by Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, who chairs the Public Safety Committee.
Breitkreuz recently wrote a column for the online publication The Mark, in which he argued that Canada's police chiefs don't want Canadians to own guns and that they want to keep the registry so they can seize those guns.
"At this point, I am certainly not going to be standing beside Garry Breitkreuz trying to tell rural Canadians that the police are coming to steal their guns in the middle of the night. That's extreme," said Angus. "And that's not where I'll be standing at the end of the day. So you can infer from that however you want, but that's where I am going right now."
Angus is one of 12 NDP MPs who voted with the Conservatives on Bill 391, a private member's bill sponsored by Candice Hoeppner, that aims to scrap the long-gun registry. A vote on whether the bill should go to third reading is set for Sept. 22 and the Conservatives need NDP support to win that vote.
Angus said he first voted for Bill 391 because he wanted to send the bill to committee so that the concerns of rural Canadians could be addressed. He said instead of working towards that end, the Conservatives responded with attack ads.
The MP for Timmins-James Bay adds that the Conservatives have not brought any evidence refuting recently released reports that indicate the registry is now efficient and useful.
"The fact that the Conservatives tried to hide these reports. If the Conservatives ... say that the police are a malevolent force and they expect me to base public policy based on lies or suppression of evidence; I cannot support a bill if it does not have evidence behind it," said Angus.
However, Angus said he is focused on a compromise bill NDP Leader Jack Layton has suggested that will take into account the concerns of his rural constituents, while maintaining the registry.
The proposals are similar to what the Liberals have also put forward.
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