Mr. Speaker, I found it quite interesting to listen to the comments of the member across the way for Regina—Qu'Appelle. He made the statement that the majority of Canadians did not support the firearm registry nor did they support the gun control program as it now stands. In January 2003 a poll by Environics showed that a majority, or 74%, of Canadians supported the program's elements, including licensing and registration. The company specializes in that. Also, that same survey showed that support for gun control, and this includes the licensing and registering, ranges from 59% in western Canada to 85% in Quebec, my home province, to 78% in Ontario to 74% in Atlantic Canada. What does the member think about that support which was shown by a survey in January?
More to the point, the member also talked about how all the provincial governments were opposed to the firearm registry program and gun control program. Why did he not mention the fact that the Alberta government actually challenged the Firearms Act? It went before the Supreme Court of Canada. All the other provincial governments, and I am not sure about the territorial governments, joined in, including his own provincial government of Manitoba. The Supreme Court in 2000 unanimously concluded that both the licensing and registration were tightly linked to Parliament's goal of enhancing public safety by reducing the misuse of firearms and by keeping firearms out of the hands of those who should not have them.
When the member talked about the opposition by provincial governments, why did he not mention that opposition went all the way to the Supreme Court and that the Supreme Court ruled that licensing and registration were tightly linked to public safety and that was a good thing?