The Angus Reid Institute has released a very interesting survey on Canadian attitudes towards banning weapons. Our political process was an epic failure at instituting gun control in 1989 arising out of the Montreal Massacre. Perhaps we will be more effective politically in the aftermath of the Nova Scotia rampage with 22 death due to assault weapons in civilian hands.
While 4 out of 5 Canadians is overwhelming support for the banning of civilian ownership of assault weapons, Alberta is by far the least supportive. When it comes top banning handguns we are way out of line with the sentiments of the rest of the country.
Alberta is clearly the most Americanized Republican-ish region of Canada. That’s not my Alberta but moderates and progressives seem not to be very well represented in the internal on-line panel that was used in this survey. Realize this is far from a scientific random sample reliable methodology.
The other disturbing outlier reality for Alberta is our confidence in the RCMP. here we are way out of alignment with the rest of the country. Less than half of us express confidence in the RCMP. I expect this is driven by the rural crime rate consciousness more than anything.
Wonder is this will embolden Jason Kenney to pursue his own provincial police force beholden to him as the Leader of the post-separatist Republic of Alberta? It was one of the items the Fair Deal Panel was to review in their deliberations and report on. That report was filed with the Premier’s Office over a month ago. Why has it not been made public?
