But here’s the problem for him and the rest of the Conservatives: new polling shows most Canadians support the government’s gun ban.
A new Angus Reid survey suggests 80 per cent of voters back Trudeau, a troubling number for the Tories that gets worse when you break it down by region.
Support for the Trudeau weapon ban is highest in the crucial political battlegrounds of Ontario and Quebec, where the next election will likely be won or lost.
And even though the government is publicly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic,
you can bet Liberal political strategists are privately smiling as they crunch the polling numbers.
So I asked O’Toole: how do the Conservatives get out of this trap?
“You get around to it by not lying to Canadians,” he told me, insisting the fight against deadly weapons should start at the Canada-U.S. border.
“We live on the border of the country with the most voracious appetite for weapons and the lowest standards of acquisition,” he said.
“So we have to work at the border. We have to be stronger on criminals.”
asked O’Toole what a Conservative government would do if he wins the party leadership and becomes prime minister.
“I would reverse what Trudeau has done,” he said. “We will redraft our firearms legislation.”
Which is exactly what Trudeau and the Liberals want him to say.
The Liberals will surely see their gun ban now as a key wedge issue that drives votes their way in the next election.