The Chair of the federal Hastings-Lennox and Addington Liberal Riding Association is calling out MP Derek Sloan for transporting the riding into “Trump’s America.”
“I’m not going to apologize for calling out Justin Trudeau on a meaningless act,” Sloan says about what he recently said about the Prime Minister’s ban on military-grade assault-style weapons. “What’s he’s doing right now is going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions to buy back guns from people who are not committing crimes.”
During a near-hour long webinar on Monday, Sloan spoke about how the ban is affecting legal gun owners, not the criminals that are using the weapons on the list to be banned. “The webinar that I did is very self-explanatory,” the local MP tells the MyBancroftNow.com newsroom. He says the government is doing something to be seen but “doing nothing at all.”
During the session, Sloan suggested he would make handguns non-restricted weapons, repeal the aforementioned military-style gun ban, as well as allow the sale of silencers. He also said he plans on easing laws on shooting people in self-defence and would consider ending the magazine restrictions sets by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in the 90s.
“Most recently, he has been courting the national gun lobby in ways that will make even many of those who voted for him blush,” Chair of the local Liberal riding association Aline Lamere says in a statement. “MP Sloan’s dangerous turn to American-style gun culture has no place in Canada.”
Sloan says the riding association is a political organization, not one that provides news or education. “They’re going to do everything they can to compete in the next federal election,” he adds. “They seem to be intent on creating a certain image for me going into the next election.” He claims that if a Liberal is voted to represent the riding in the next election, that person will do nothing to change what the Prime Minister is doing. He says there are “many” gun owners and hunters in Hastings-Lennox and Addington that are upset with what with the ban.
“For a first-time MP in a community that he barely knows to take his time to run for leadership instead of getting to know and serve his community is one thing,” Lamere adds in her statement. “To try to turn that community into Trump’s America of the North is quite another.” She goes on to call Sloan a “Republican canary.”
Sloan says there are two options right now: crackdown on legal gun owners. “Which is essentially what’s being done now,” he says. The second option is to deal with the people committing the crimes who aren’t legal gun owners. He says that “no matter what Trudeau does” Sloan says criminals will continue to get guns.
He says the ban put in place by the Liberals is to pander to people in Toronto who say there needs to be more rules on guns but “don’t know the difference.” Sloan adds that criminals that want guns will continue to smuggle them across the border, with or without this recent gun ban in place.