Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest promised Tuesday to subject a national ban on so-called assault-style firearms to a classification review by a panel of experts.
It comes after the former Quebec premier said back in March, when specifically asked about the prohibition, that he wasn't "seeking to change the laws as they are."Asked about the apparent shift, campaign spokeswoman Laurence Toth said that Charest stands by his initial position. What he's proposing is a review of the regulations and not a legislative change, she said.
Charest's position on that ban is similar to the one O'Toole eventually adopted last year. After several days of confusion around his stance, O'Toole inserted a footnote into the party's platform clarifying it would keep the prohibition in place but subject it to a review. Firearm advocates and gun owners make up part of the party's grassroots, which is heavily concentrated in Western Canada, and so it is typical for leadership candidates to release policies related to firearm ownership.
Longtime Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre, who's running on a campaign pledge of "freedom," blasted the new legislation as a "made-for-Hollywood approach to firearm classification" and promised to focus more resources on stopping the illegal smuggling of guns across the border.To set the criteria for classification, Poilievre also promised to assemble a panel of experts that includes sport shooters and First Nations hunters.
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