NDP distance themselves from Tories on gun registry

The need to retain the rural vote has made the NDP allies with the Conservatives on the gun registry, but that doesn’t mean they’re on the same side.

At least one NDP MP is threatening to change his mind on the long-gun registry if the Conservatives don’t stop pressuring his party into siding with the government. A Conservative sponsored bill to dismantle the controversial gun control program is up for a vote in September, and the NDP is split with urban MPs saying they support the registry and rural ones siding with the government. Ontario NDP MP Charlie Angus said he was planning on supporting the bill but he’s “fed up” with the Conservatives, particularly Gary Breitkreuz, who wrote an article in The Mark that said the police use the registry to control the population. Angus says he’d rather vote against the bill than be associated with Breitkreuz’s views.