Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support the Reform supply motion on government broken promises.
I refer to the Prime Minister's statement in 1993 during the election that "there will not be a promise I do not keep". Those words ring very clear in my mind given that during the campaign in my riding of Calgary Northeast it was a very heated time.
It became very intense over one issue in my riding, criminal justice. There was a calling to account from all the candidates about what they would do about the crime problem in the country. There was concern about the Young Offenders Act, early release, what is happening in our prisons and why the police are not able to enforce the law adequately and uniformly.
Of course the Prime Minister and the red book reflected how safe the streets would be under a Liberal government. The problem at that time was the streets were made unsafe by previous Liberal governments. Another Liberal government came forward with statements that it would make people feel much more safe and that it would look after the violence that was increasing in society.
I refer to 1962 stats and compare them with stats of 1994. In 1962 there were 221 violent incidents per 100,000 population in Canada. In 1994 the violent crime rate increased to 1,037 per 100,000 population. That represents a 369 per cent increase in police reported violent crime over a 32 year period.
I was a police officer during those years. I could see crime increase over my tenure with the Calgary city police force. Nobody here, especially those on that side of the House, could ever tell me or the people in this country that violent crime has not increased by at least that percentage, regardless of what Statistics Canada is telling everyone here, and those on the government side believing violent crime and crime in general are going down.
Let us look at the broad picture. In 1962, 221 violent crimes per 100,000 population as opposed to 1,037 in 1994. That speaks for itself. Most of that is a result of Liberal policy initiated by not only this government but the two previous governments.
Let us look at some of the statements regarding the present policy as passed by this Liberal government. The government started with a bang. It started with the gun control bill. The government said it will among other measures counter illegal importation of banned and restricted firearms into Canada and prohibit anyone convicted of an indictable drug related offence, a stalking offence or any other violent offence from owning or possessing a gun. That is quite a mouthful.
Go to Cornwall and see what kind of importation is going on. Go to Cornwall and find out what the smuggling problem is in that area of the province. There is a smuggling problem there and it includes illegal firearms.
The Liberal government keeps nattering about what a great job it is doing clamping down on smuggling, especially the smuggling of firearms. It is a joke. The government is doing absolutely nothing to counter the smuggling problem. It is happening in several areas across the country on the border of the United States.