December 10, 1999
The Editor
The Edmonton Journal
Note: 1 page sent by fax to: (780) 429-5500
e-mail: letters@thejournal.southam.ca
Dear Editor:
Re: SELECTIVE USE OF POLLS IS ELITISM - NOT POPULISM!
What happened? Did your editorial writers just get lazy or were they rushed to meet a deadline? ("Populist MP becomes elitist" - The Edmonton Journal, Thursday, December 9, 1999). Do you really think 50% of the voters in Yorkton-Melville voted for me because I am 'elitist'? Do you believe every poll that the government puts out or just the ones on gun control?
Populism doesn't mean blindly following the polls. Populism means that important issues like the GST and the Charlottetown Accord should be decided by the people in binding referenda after an informed debate. Remember the Charlottetown Accord? Initial polls indicated massive public support but after becoming informed in a full public debate, it went down to defeat in a national referendum. Unfortunately, such an informed public debate has never occurred on the costs and benefits of the Liberal's gun registration scheme.
Let's examine the government's latest public opinion poll on the controversial gun registry - released just in time to create some positive spin leading up to the first year anniversary since the Firearms Act came into force, four years since Bill C-68 was rammed through Parliament, and ten years since the emotional appeal for tougher gun control laws following the Montreal massacre. Here's the key question the Gallup pollster's asked: "In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?" I told your reporter that this is a bogus question because it solicits a predictable response - not an informed response. The poll could only have been an honest representation of public opinion if Gallup had asked the same question again after informing the respondents of a few key facts, which I obtained using the Access to Information Act:
* Costs for the registry have exceeded $300 million - 3.5 times the original estimate of $85 million
* The government recovered only $2.9 million in user fees in the first six months of operation
* Upwards of 800 bureaucrats now work in the firearm registry, including 391 RCMP employees
* Justice Dept. reports show registry error rates are 'approximately 80%'
* Justice Minister's firearms experts say registry is causing an increase in black-market gun sales
* RCMP report states that there has been 'less than 10% compliance'
* Statistics Canada reports 98% of violent crime victims never encounter firearms
* 46% of all murders last year were committed with handguns despite the 65-year-old firearms registry.
What do you suppose the results to the same question would have been if respondents had been properly informed? Well, fortunately two professors Dr. Gary Mauser and Dr. H. Taylor Buckner conducted just such an enlightened poll.
They set out to determine the difference between an uninformed response and an informed one on the issue of gun registration. Their findings were published by the Mackenzie Institute in January of 1997 in a report titled, "Canadian Attitudes Toward Gun Control: The Real Story." When they asked respondents: "Do you agree or disagree that all firearms should be registered?" 75.7% Agreed Strongly. Then respondents were asked: "If it would cost $500 million over the next five years to set up and maintain a firearms registry, would you still agree?" Only 32.4% Agreed Strongly. Enough said.
Elitism is manipulating polls and using the flawed results to support a position the government has already decided to take. Populism is having enough faith in voters to allow them to make informed decisions about the major policy directions that their government should take following a national debate and a binding referendum. Government has been hiding information on the gun registry. Democracy can only work if we have the information necessary to make decisions.
Sincerely,
Garry Breitkreuz, MP
Yorkton-Melville