In a campaign that has not had a lot mistakes, unlike Trudeau, O'Toole has come under heavy criticsim over gun control. He initially supported the Con platform's promise to end the 2020 ban on assault rifles, but when questioned during the TVA debate he says he supports the ban, but was misleadingly referring to a 1977 law that banned fully automatic guns. Now he's saying he will keep the 2020 ban in place until a review is done of the law, which of course won't be until after the election. This simply sounds like a way of trying to avoid discussing the issue, only raising further doubts that he will do away with the ban soon after the election. This raises even more questions not only about Con gun control or lack thereof policies, but perhaps even more important in terms of an election of whether you can trust him on other issues in addition to gun control. O'Toole's campaign manager, Fred DeLorey, is a former lobbyist for the National Firearms Association (NFA). The current lobbyist for the NFA, Sheldon Clare, said in Sunday's CBC National broadcast "I am confident that Mr. O'Toole is a consistent, stalwart person that is going to standby what he has said" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2BHhldrPjY), which sounds like he is confident that the gun manufacturers will get every thing they want under an O'Toole government.
After days of question about his party’s gun policy, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said Sunday he would maintain a Liberal ban on ‘assault-style’ firearms if he forms government.
“I want to make my position on firearms perfectly clear. First, the ban on assault weapons will remain in place. Second, the present ban on a number of other firearms that were reclassified in 2020 will remain in place,” he told reporters in Vancouver.
At a French-language debate on Thursday, O’Toole said he would maintain a ban on assault weapons. On Friday, a party spokeswoman pointed to the Conservative platform that confirmed O’Toole’s promise to axe a 2020 ban on what the Liberal government called “assault-style” weapons while maintaining a prohibition of fully automatic weapons which has been in place since 1977.
O’Toole, however, remained evasive about the party’s position, repeating he would maintain the ban on assault weapons and telling reporters on Saturday that people who were confused on his position could look to the party’s platform to “fill in the blanks.” That document promises to repeal the Liberal measures, which were introduced through a May 2020 Order in Council and banned some 1,500 firearm models, including the popular AR-15 rifle and the Ruger Mini-14 used to kill 14 women at Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique in 1989.
O’Toole’s Sunday statements appeared to reverse course on that plan for the time being. A senior conservative source tells Global News — it became clear that the Liberals wanted “to make this an issue” for the entire week. “O’Toole’s team thought they hadn’t said enough to put the issue to bed, so it was added to his remarks at the last minute this morning,” the source said. “We’re maintaining the status quo that’s in place right now,” O’Toole said Sunday, while also leaving the door open for future changes.
The Conservative Leader’s comments also included a promise of a “public, transparent” review of Canada’s gun classification system, a step he said will depoliticize gun regulation. “Our intention is to take the politics out of this, because Mr. Trudeau has divided rural versus urban, he has demonized, in some cases, farmers, hunters, sport shooters and actually ignored the real problem of rising smuggling and organized gang activity,” he said. “Assault” or “assault-style” firearms are colloquial descriptions, and what falls into either category is debated among gun users.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8169157/otoole-firearm-bans-conservative-plat...
