Gun Registry Voodoo?

Politics never cease to amaze me.

Yesterday, the Canadian Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, came out with her yearly report. The purpose, for any of you that may not know, is to go through government financial accounting and report on any mismanagement, waste, etc. Basically, she works like the auditors for a company. And just like a company auditor, the Auditor General is supposed to be free from influence in rendering her opinion.

The reason I bring this up is that the first item on her list, as reported in the media, was that the gun registry that was set up by the Liberals had some apparent irregularities in how they reported its true cost. Fair enough, but apparently this has been going on since at least 2004! Ms. Fraser claims that she was facing resistance from bureaucrats in getting the information she required, but why did she wait this long to get the word out? Why didn't she bring this up before, or is there another reason?

The Conservatives announced today that they will revamp the gun registry. It has been reported that handguns and semi-automatic weapons will likely remain on the registry, but shotguns and rifles will be taken off. No doubt, a result of western-influenced gun lobbyists. A shame that this will occur since police forces are applauding its existence and use it quite often. I don't think they relish the idea of it being watered down.

I find it more than a coincidence that these two announcements happened within 24 hours of each other. Are the Conservatives influencing the supposedly independent Auditor General? Did they just take advantage of something they knew she was going to report because they got an advance copy? Did they purposely give her the information she required so the Conservatives could embarrass the Liberals? Why did this not come out sooner?

The tight reign that Prime Minister Harper has on his caucus, when it comes to them speaking with the media, is getting out of hand. We see the same couple of Conservative faces in the media, when it comes to talking about the issues. We never hear from most of the other ministers or back-benchers. Yet, when it comes to bashing the opposition members, there seems to be unending access and information from the Conservative caucus.

Conservative conspiracy? You be the judge. I'm only here to present information for you to decide. Dismiss me as a crackpot, or a conspiracy theorist looking for hidden agendas everywhere. Whatever conclusions you come to with respect to me or the Conservative government, unfortunately you won't have much help from the media because they have little access to Conservative MPs.

Wings Over The World