Watch what you say in Alberta partner. That province has enough guns to go to war and lacks a sensible government to prevent it. Between the lunatic fringe vying to replace the discredited Jason Kenney as premier and the existing Alberta justice minister Tyler Shandro, they seem to be very confused.
Maybe they are getting too much of that tar sands bitumen in their drinking water. Shandro says the federal government is going to confiscate all the guns. That is an interesting impression of a proposed federal government bill that has only now reached the point of committee study.
Shandro thinks that the federal government is going to have its mounted police (who are paid as Alberta’s provincial police) confiscate some 190,000 guns that are reported to be locked and loaded throughout the province. Well, that is what you get when you offer to buy back the more dangerous weapons. I sure would not want to be the first Mountie to kick in a door to confiscate anyone’s possibly illegal assault weapon.
According to the justice minister, the Alberta government is going to fight any and all firearms prohibition laws. Shandro tells the news media that he has had a letter from federal public safety minister Marco Mendicino saying that his provincial RCMP will be required to start confiscating guns later this year. Maybe, in Alberta, the schools do not teach the difference between a buy-back program and confiscation?
It would be possible to disregard Mr. Shandro if it was not for Danielle Smith. Ms. Smith seems to be the front runner in the race to replace Jason Kenney as leader of the united conservatives and premier of Alberta. Her pushing of the Alberta Sovereignty Act might seem Looney Tunes to reasonable Canadians but it is resonating across the province.
Her explanation of the Sovereignty Act goes well beyond firing the Mounties as the province’s police force. She also thinks Alberta can simply decide which federal laws the province will agree to obeying. It might just be sour grapes from Jason Kenney but he considers Smith’s act to be “a de facto plan for separatism.” He’s out of there!
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