Mr. Speaker, quite honestly I would say on my behalf and on behalf of the majority of my colleagues in this place that I think any ordinary person in Canadian life can aspire, under the present system, to be a member of Parliament and actually attain that goal.
As for whether a person is rich or not, I am not certain that it helps the nomination process. There is a huge difference between the ability to run for politics in Canada and the ability to run for politics in the United States, for example, where it is extremely expensive. In the United States a person does have to be rich or perhaps very well connected. Perhaps if our system were to became more expensive in the future, this would help to prevent that, but for anyone now aspiring to a life of public service, I really do not think there is a huge obstacle to attaining that goal.
On gun control, this is another issue, but since the question was raised I would like to say it is not about gun control, absolutely not. There is nothing in the registry that has changed anything about gun control. What has worked with gun control is the gun control parts of the provision. The registry has been a dismal failure. Eight hundred million dollars later, it has been a dismal failure.
The gun control legislation as proposed by the Tories prior to this has worked well. It has reduced the number of violent crimes in the country. It is about safe storage and safe handling, the careful and responsible use of firearms. No one that I have ever talked to has been against that process. The problem is an overly expensive, overly complicated, unworkable registry that has been a dismal failure. The gun control legislation, which the Liberals did not bring in, absolutely has worked, while the registry is a dismal, utter failure.