Guns, Wars, and Goats

The gun registry's passe, the War of 1812 is cool again, and goat thieves are the new terrorists.

News came this week that the Conservative government is finally going to put an end to the gun registry, which is their equivalent of Captain Ahab's white whale. The National Post's editorialists, of course, welcome the decision to kill the registry, saying the database of all long-gun owners in the country “should never have been created” in the first place. “Once established, the registry not only proved to be expensive and error-prone, it drove a wedge between police and lawful Canadian firearms owners, who became justifiably frustrated at being deemed public safety risks simply because they owned a firearm,” they write. Which is a reasonable position to take, we guess, although the it only costs about $4 million a year to maintain now that the kinks have largely been ironed out. Oh, and police across the country vouch for its effectiveness, but what do they know about gun control?

In a thoughtful piece in the Guelph Mercury, Matthew Bondy looks at the upcoming bicentennial for the War of 1812. The Tories have announced as much as $100 million in spending to pay tribute to the war, which Bondy figures is proof that the Tories embody a “uniquely Canadian, conservative nationalism” that promotes the military, the monarchy, and Quebec nationalism. “The 1812 bicentennial is a once-in-a-generation political opportunity to shape Canada’s self-understanding, and weave a nationalist narrative from the pre-Confederation era through to the present day,” says Bondy. For those not up to speed on the War of 1812, forces fighting under the British Crown – including English- and French- speaking Canadians, as well as aboriginal militias – repelled an American invasion (and then burned down the White House). We'll always support initiatives to promote woefully underappreciated Canadian history, especially one as integral to Canada's creation as the War of 1812. But that comes with the caveat that it should not be manipulated for cheap political gain.

The Globe and Mail editorialists, meanwhile, urge Canadian border guards to “exercise common sense and flexibility” when determining who gets allowed into the country. Border guards have been granted power to perform thorough criminal background checks on Americans entering the country, which has led to a man who stole a mascot goat as a high school prank being denied entry into Canada, as well as a few other obvious misinterpretations of the guards' new powers. And while having the protectors of our borders having access to resources to disallow hardened criminals into Canada is ostensibly a good thing, chasing such harmless visitors away over decades-old incidents undermines the whole system. This practice “fails to accomplish the goal of keeping both countries safe from the real criminals and terrorists,” says the Globe. But it does keep out livestock thieves.