Mr. Speaker, the chief government whip gave an excellent speech tonight. He talked about the myths and the facts. I want to tell a quick story.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to ask my daughter, who was celebrating her 15th birthday, what she wanted to do. She asked if we could go to the local rodeo. It makes a father awful proud when his child asks to go to a cultural event such as that.
That evening there was a 50/50 draw and a young man from Killam won it. He said to me, “I'll give you all of this money if you'll put it toward the fight against the firearms registry”. That shows the level and degree of passion for getting rid of this long gun registry. I told him that I could not take his money, but assured him that the government was taking some very specific measures to get rid of the long gun registry.
Some of the things we have talked about are investing in front line police officers, the $1 billion registry, mandatory minimum sentences and real measures that would help get the criminals off the street and fight crime.
Could the member, who has served the country and his riding so well over 13 or 14 years, elaborate on a few of the crime fighting measures we are putting in place, and how a long gun registry is simply not sufficient in the fight against crime and is a waste of Canadian taxpayer dollars?