OTTAWA –  Today, in the House of Commons, Vegreville-Wainwright Member of Parliament Leon Benoit pointed out the continuing hypocrisy of New Democrat MPs. Following is an excerpt from his speech:

“Mr. Speaker, Canadians gave our [Conservative] government a strong mandate to end the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry once and for all, and that is exactly what we are doing. However, we are not the only ones who promised this. Many NDP MPs from rural Canada told their voters that they would scrap the registry as well. The member for Western Arctic [Dennis Bevington] even stood at an all-candidates debate last May and said, “Vote for me or vote for the Conservatives. It's all the same. We'll both end the registry.”

Guess what? Unfortunately, this individual has decided that he will stand up for the NDP big union bosses rather than for his constituents, saying he wants the registry but he does not want the records. That is just silly. I call on the member for Western Arctic to live up to his promises to the good people of the Northwest Territories and vote in the House to scrap the long gun registry once and for all.”

Benoit went on to point out that the final vote in the House on Commons on this Bill is expected on Wednesday, February 15th. “I hope that those MPs who promised their constituents they would vote in favour of eliminating this costly and ineffective registry will finally do the right thing.  Personally, there hasn’t been a vote I have looked forward to this much in a long time – I can’t wait to see the last of the long-gun registry.”