Mr. Speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay was recently named ethics, ATIP and privacy critic. Keeping his word should be important to him.
His large northern Ontario riding has many law-abiding gun owners. For years the NDP member promised his constituents that he would vote to end the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry.
In 2009, when a bill to end the registry came up for second reading, he voted for it and sent out parliamentary resources saying “promise made, promise kept”. However, at the next crucial stage of the bill, he flip-flopped and opposed the bill. If he had kept his word, the bill would have continued on. Instead, the bill was defeated and the registry remained.
The member put his out-of-touch leadership ahead of the promise he made to the people of Timmins—James Bay, our great Kenora riding neighbours.
In 2011, he failed again to keep his promise.
Clearly, the bigger issue here is that the NDP leader and the members of the shrinking northern Ontario NDP caucus no longer represent the interests of their constituents.